EnGadget reports that the public library in Naperville, Illinois, (US) now takes fingerprints of people who want to check their e-mail or surf the web using the library’s computing facilities. Library officials are implementing a system that requires authentication by fingerprint scanner before you can execute any action on a pc. This thing is just one of the silly undemocratic rules that are applied in the combat against invisible evildoers.
“There’s some mumbo jumbo flying about how your fingerprint scans can’t be reverse engineered by evildoers, and how the data can’t possibly be cross-referenced with other more notable fingerprint registries kept by the FBI and state police but we and the ACLU know the fishy whiff of privacy invasion when we smell it. Yeah, call us paranoid if you must, but it just seems like overkill to have to submit to a fingerprinting before being able to check email in a public library.”
Xeni Jardin from BoingBoing says :
“Library officials in a Chicago suburb plan to scan and record visitor fingerprints, purportedly to prevent unauthorized persons from using library computers. Way to make libraries a more happyfun haven of knowledge, guys!”
From the Washington Post :
“Library officials said they wanted to tighten computer access because many people borrow library cards and pass codes from friends or family to log on. The technology also will help the library implement a new policy that allows parents to put filters on their childrens’ accounts, officials said.
But privacy advocates have criticized the plan, which would make Naperville only the second library system in the nation to use fingerprint-scanning technology, according to the American Library Association.”
If you’re wondering why they’re doing it, the answer is also in the article. OMG, they’re not even hiding it. What kind of a country has such a profound mistrust in its population? If I get this straight, the US government is convinced everyone has something to hide. Every citizen is a potential criminal. Pretty soon, you’ll see an anti-terror squad taking over a library with teargas and brutal force because someone who didn’t pay his parking fees got recognized by the system and accidentally got marked ‘dangerous’. Nice prospects.
Here’s the quote :
“We take people’s fingerprints because we think they might be guilty of something, not because they want to use the library,” said Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union in Illinois.”
’nuff said.
[via EnGadget]
Article on the Washington Post
BoingBoing’s Entry on this matter