Cafeteria finger scanning raises concerns

Students at Mount Tabor Elementary in New Albany can now use a finger scanning system from Horizon Software to pay for school meals, but some parents are worried about the new technology.

New Albany-Floyd County school officials say that the scanning system can eliminate PIN numbers, maintain the privacy of students who get free or reduced-price meals and speed up time in lines. But some parents are questioning where the data is stored and what the school system might do if the information is hacked, WAVE-TV reports.

Amy Huff, vice president of marketing at Horizon Software, says the system's biometric readers don't actually store fingerprints. “It's basically storing a template that's a numerical representation of the individual fingerprint,”
Huff said. “What’s stored in the system is simply a series of zeroes and ones that are based on an algorithm of different points on a student’s finger.”