Embedded Files
March's Theme is: What is Biometric Data?
Finding healthy digital habits for school, relationships, and life
Standards Alignment
Strand 4, Standard 2: Identify threats to online privacy including location tracking and device fingerprinting.
Strand 4, Standard 3: Discuss ethical and legal responsibilities regarding Personal Identifiable Information (PII) and consent laws.
Strand 4, Standard 1: Define digital footprint and discuss present and future impacts.
Lesson & Slides
Lesson & Slides
Focus: The risk of biometric harvesting and the systemic failure of digital consent laws.
Objective: Students will evaluate the safety risks of biometric data exploitation and analyze how the failure of consent laws can compromise their physical autonomy.
Lesson Flow:
The Hook
Biometric Data (Innovatrics): Personal data resulting from specific technical processing relating to physical, physiological, or behavioral characteristics (e.g., facial geometry) which allow for the unique identification of a person.
Legal Context (Thomson Reuters): Measurable biological characteristics used for identification. Key Distinction: Unlike a password, biometric data is permanent and cannot be "reset" if stolen or compromised.
Class Discussion: You can reset a hacked password in 60 seconds. If a corporate database containing your facial geometry or thumbprint is breached, you cannot 'reset' your face. How does the loss of a 'reset button' for your physical identity change your safety in the real world?
Case Study — The Corporate Offender (Video)
Media Link: Target Collecting Biometric Data Without Permission (2:15)
Corporations often use "pop-ups" or 50-page contracts to claim they have your "consent. If a corporation knows exactly where you are standing in a store and recognizes your face the moment you walk in, do you still have control over your own movements, or is the corporation now managing your behavior?"
Optional Article: Policy Shift — TikTok Precision Tracking
Context: TikTok is shifting from "approximate" (city-level) to "precise" (GPS-coordinate) location data for its 200 million U.S. users.
The Shift: This includes harvesting "prompts and questions" sent to AI tools.
Discussion: Does “precise” GPS tracking serve the user, or does it serve the corporation’s ability to monitor physical movement? How does the storage of your AI prompts and thoughts change the permanency of your digital footprint?
Exit Ticket (1 min) - direct students to their appropriate grade-level exit ticket link under "student resources"
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