A tech company in Rhode Island recently thought that the best way to test their new tracking system would be to attach them to the backpacks of grade schoolers and see where local buses take them, the ACLU did not agree.

The pilot program set to start next week in the Middletown school district would have about 80 children put tags containing radio frequency identification chips, or RFID chips, on their schoolbags. It would also equip two buses with global positioning systems, or GPS devices.

The school and parents will be able to track students on the bus, and the district hopes the program will improve busing efficiency, Superintendent Rosemarie Kraeger said. The devices are intended to record only when students enter and exit the bus, and the GPS would show where the bus was on it’s route.[AP]

Even though Kraeger says that parents can opt out of the program, the ACLU immediately saw problems with MAP Information Technology Corp’s plans. Even though the plans are just to monitor the buses, it would be easy for someone to exploit the children and use the information in a way that would violate privacy rights.While tech companies using students as test subjects is a somewhat new phenomenon, issues of students privacy have been on the rise ever since Columbine. Schools and students have been walking a fine line between protection and privacy invasion when it comes to surveillance these days. Below is a video from a local Michigan news vlog where they discuss what installing security cameras at the local high school would mean:

What do you think?