RFID and GPS Technology Tracks Alabama Students as they Make their Way to School
Starting February 2012, students at three Alabama schools have been part of a pilot project designed to enhance child safety between home and school! Using ID cards with radio frequency identification device (RFID) technology built-in, students are scanned as they get on and off school buses. Combining the RFID data with GPS, the system transmits the student’s location data to a remote server, which allows a Huntsville school official to access it if they need to. The technology is called ZPass and was developed and by Zonar Systems. ZPass is intended to improve child safety so that parents know if their kids are on their school bus.
Security concerns? ZPass is managed entirely by Zonar. “The data collected will go to a server provided and hosted by the vendor that a Huntsville City Schools representative will be able to access online through an encrypted website.” Keith Ward, spokesman for Huntsville City Schools, assures that “it’s only going to be someone at the district level that has the ability to access the information.”. (Alabama School District to Track Student Bus Riders)
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