Post Privacy Education

A US federal judge has dismissed a Texas girl’s objection to locator chips in student ID badges at a public high school in a case that raises concerns about the erosion of privacy and civil liberties.

Andrea Hernandez, 15, and her father told school officials they oppose the use of locator chips on religious grounds.

Because the technology is easy to acquire, it is vulnerable to hacking, which could allow someone outside the school to monitor a student’s off-campus whereabouts.

Dotty Griffith, American Civil Liberties Union

Officials at San Antonio’s Northside school district said they were willing to give her a chipless badge, but warned the straight-A student she would be expelled from her prestigious selective-enrolment school if she did not wear it.