Facial recognition cameras installed in UK school canteens

Schools in Scotland are trialling facial recognition to allow pupils to pay for their lunches from Monday. The software is to be trialled across nine schools in North Ayrhsire, and hopes to speed up lunchtime sales by scanning the faces of pupils when at tills. Many schools already use biometric software, such as fingerprint recognition, to take payments but facial recognition is billed as being quicker and more Covid-secure. David Swanston, the manging director of CBR Cunninghams, who installed the software, said it was "the fastest way of recognising someone at the till." "In a secondary school you have around about a 25-minute period to serve potentially 1,000 pupils. So we need fast throughput at the point of sale, he told the Financial Times. MPs and peers urge education secretary to rethink plans to scrap most BTECs Covid cases near peak of second wave as schoolchildren fuel rise Schools reminded to allow absences arising from Covid'in exceptional circumstances' Schools reminded to allow absences arising from Covid'in exceptional circumstances' Mr Swanston said the software cut the average transaction time five seconds per pupil. But the new system has been criticised by privacy campaigners who say it normalises facial recognition software where there is little need for and was often operated without clear consent from the user. Silkie Carlo, of the civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch, said: "It's normalising biometric identity checks for something that is mundane.