> Taking your example, what message does that send to a kid if they need to be fingerprinted just to eat lunch? Sending that message is, IMHO, extremely problem

> Taking your example, what message does that send to a kid if they need to be fingerprinted just to eat lunch? Sending that message is, IMHO, extremely problematic. Except that fingerprinting is being marketed to parents as a way to recover lost children [1]. And it's not the child's choice, per se, since they're a minor -- it's the parent's. So parents will probably have a different priority than privacy for their child. I get what you're saying, in that fingerprints are part of our privacy, and that they can be used against us in certain circumstances. But, my thinking these days goes to answering the question of whether we should keep fingerprints private, or should they be public? Anything we touch tends to leave a trail of oil which identifies us, which kind of makes that data public anyway. But nothing stops our friends or neighbors or store owners from dusting the things we touch to get our fingerprints and selling that data on to a third party, other than the hassle of it. There are industries that collect our personal data and sell it to third parties, but to my knowledge, there is nothing stopping people them from collecting and selling our fingerprints as well. With the OPM hack [2] (Of which I was a victim of) I tend to think we should use fingerprints less and less anyway, since it would be relatively trivial now to recreate my fingerprints and put them at a scene of a crime. So either we have more and more regulations around fingerprints to keep fingerprints secure (which the criminals wouldn't follow anyway). Or maybe we should open them for everyone, and restrict how they can be used for identity (in almost no circumstances), and destroy the inherent value in the use of a fingerprint. [1]: http://www.childidprogram.com/the-id-kit/how-fingerprints-find-a-child http://www.childidprogram.com/the-id-kit/how-fingerprints-fi... [2]: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-to-do-with-a-million-stolen-fingerprints/ https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-to-do-with-a-milli...