Public Library Finger Printing: On the Cards - Liberal Democrats Slam Council Decision

12.23.16pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 11th May 2007

Liberal Democrats on Gloucestershire County Council were alarmed yesterday when Tory and Labour Councillors voted down a motion which would have guaranteed against finger printing in public libraries.

It has recently been discovered that schools are finger printing young children in order to use biometric data for library purposes in preference to a simple library card. The revelation caused alarm because the Local Authority had previously known nothing of the biometric library systems used in schools. Liberal Democrats proposed a motion to yesterday's meeting of full council to prevent similar developments in Gloucestershire's public libraries. Tory and Labour councillors voted the motion out.

Liberal Democrat group leader, Cllr Jeremy Hilton, has led successful campaigns on similar issues in Gloucestershire, such as ID Cards and Police DNA databases for young non-offenders. Cllr Hilton, who yesterday proposed the motion against public library finger printing said:

"I have seen the finger printing systems in action in some of our schools, and the technology could be very easily transferred to the computer systems of our public libraries. Biometrics is a growth industry and the UK is a lucrative market. If we don't act now, we could see members of the public finger printed just to take out a book or a CD. This is unnecessary, it would create security risks and would interfere with our privacy. This could be particularly upsetting for some of the more senior users of our libraries. These systems will also work with a traditional library card, so why not just stick to what we know works?"

Cllr Hilton added: "We wanted our motion to prevent the spread of finger printing into public libraries as happened in our schools. I'm very disappointed by the attitude of the Labour and Tory councillors who voted against our motion. Their decision clearly shows that they're happy to see the general public finger printed just for borrowing a book. I can only assume they've failed to appreciate the security risk posed by finger printing as well as the way it undermines our privacy and civil liberties."