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!
The scanners _ to be installed on 130 library computers this summer _ will verify the identity of computer users. 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 children's' 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. "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.
What will save us from our technology? More technology? Just because we can, should we? Do we really want nor need a perfect technological sytems of law? Here's a wild idea, perhaps law only works because it can be broken, because it is messy, because civil disobediance can happen, because law is never perfect, because we are imperfect makers of law. Perhaps our very humanity lies somewhere in the imperfection? When the folks in Naperville get their perfect little utopia where laws are perfect and they can keep "unauthorized visitors from using their computers" will it really be a perfect society, or will it more resemble hell?
We're such a technologically bent society right now we sometimes can't see our hand in front of our face.
I just wanted to say this because I always like to say it. The revolution is not technological, it's socialogical. The technology is merely the catalyst for what's to come. These nice fools in Naperville I love them with their technology is the answer approach to everything. They're ++++!
Link: Ill. Library Getting Fingerprint Scanners
Via: Boing Boing: Fingerprint scanners coming to Illinois library
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