A politician and a civil liberties group have raised serious concerns about the capture of personal data, which has been likened to the novel 1984, where everyone's movements are tracked and monitored.

But the pupils at Drakies Primary School where the £1,000 biometric system is installed see the system as a "game" and have been embracing the "James Bond-like" technology.

Currently the Inverness school is the only one in the Highlands to use the Junior Librarian biometric system, but sceptics fear it is another step down the road to the future depicted by George Orwell in his novel.

Danny Alexander, MP for Inverness East, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey expressed his worries regarding the use of the biometric data at the Drumossie Avenue school.

The Lib Dem politician told the Highland News: "I am deeply concerned that this practice is coming to schools in the Highlands. Liberal Democrats have consistently spoken out against this in Parliament, and I will be asking the council to clarify its policy."

Mr Alexander added: "Collecting finger-print data from children – even for apparently harmless administrative purposes – is not something that should be taken lightly.

"Personal data, once recorded in electronic form, is potentially accessible for a wide range of purposes. I am totally unconvinced that schools need to adopt this approach. New technology can achieve a lot, but it must not be allowed to erode civil liberties for the sake of convenience.

"We should think very carefully about whether we want to encourage primary age children to regard it as normal to have this kind of data taken from them and used routinely."

The new system means youngsters at the school can borrow books without the need for a card, by pressing their thumb on to the machine that reads their print.

According to a Highland Council spokeswoman, the system was chosen to make it easier for children borrowing books.

She added: "We take the recording of personal data most seriously and for school pupils, parents' permission is sought. This involvement is evidence of the message that personal data matters.

"It is recognised that the library use of biometric systems such as automated fingerprint identification systems has been linked emotively by some with other biometric operations such as fingerprinting criminals. However, the library use has been viewed positively by the young people who have used the system.

"The council will continue to evaluate all appropriate technologies when deploying systems. The scanned fingerprint image is not stored or retained but a subset of the unique features extracted and converted into a biometric template which is stored as a binary number. It is not possible to generate a fingerprint image from the template."

Despite her comments, a spokeswoman for the National Policing Improvement Agency said: "If the police have reason to suspect a child has committed a crime then as part of their investigation with permission of the school and the parent, the police can request access to the data if they have reason to believe it will help them with their investigation."

A single parent of two pupils at Drakies Primary School spoke of his horror when he read a letter detailing the biometric system.

The man, who did not want to be named, said: "This is quite outrageous. It is almost worse than a breach of civil liberties. Do we really need such an intrusive system to track tatty old library books? What is the matter with a manual system?

He added: "I do know a lot of parents will get the letter and probably not read it. If they stop to think about this they might realise the consequences of allowing such a system.

"It is another example of big brother collecting information on us. What next?"

He added: "To the children this all seems like a game or like something they have seen on James Bond whereas it is a lot more serious than that. It teaches them not to respect her own civil liberties at a young age."

A spokeswoman for Liberty, an independent human rights organisation questioned whether the introduction of such a system, which is already popping up at other schools across the UK, could be properly regulated.

She said: "Unfortunately these fingerprint schemes may be using technology just for the sake of it and without proper regulation.

"Before schemes like this become the norm we must question if the biometric data of children is being shared, has permission been sought from parents, and is there truly no alternative?"

c.hay@highland-news.co.uk

* Is it right to use children's fingerprints so they can borrow school books? Go to 'The Big Vote' to have your say.

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