Biometrics is an inherently flawed system, mainly because biometrics is a fixed password system (your DNA, fingerprints, retinal scans etc) which you can’t change. So once someone gets your password or the numerical interpretation of you which will be held on some government database then you are quite literally toast.
To the common voter this system seems foolproof – Joe Bloggs would think that such a system is going to purge the world of terrorism and organized crime, when in fact the real truth is that biometrics will do the exact opposite.
TOP 6 REASONS WHY BIOMETRICS IS A VERY BAD IDEA…
1) Finger print, retinal scanners and facial recognition software have already been hacked. Read more: UK biometric passports succumb to hack. Once a system has been hacked, it is deemed useless.
2) The notion that every fingerprint is unique is an un-testable hypothesis; if we fingerprinted everyone ever born then yes we could say fingerprints are unique. What about illegal immigrants and criminals; these guys won’t be in a rush to get chipped up. Read more: Are fingerprints really infallible, unique ID?
3) The UK Government has already shown their level of incompetence when handling secure, mass data files. Read more: Missing government computer discs. Are they to be trusted?
4) Only people who benefit from biometrics are the criminals who will have a really cheap, simple and reliable way of proving they are not who they are meant to be. Instead, swathes of old ladies will be carted off to the police station as they have mistakenly picked up their library card instead of their National biometric ID card.
5) Biometrics and Privacy: We can no longer be able to expect a reasonable level of privacy/anonymity in public. Biometrics will destroy that. It will also have the ability to track our behavioural and physiological characteristics.
6) Who will be trusted with your biometric data? How would the software authentication work? Who will write the software, and who will own, run and maintain the code? Whoever controls this biometric data will have a lot of power.
Read more on this article and the reasons why biometrics will be introduced, regardless of public opinion.
Read Part 2- The reasons why biometric identification will still be implemented.
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April 14th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
The area where biometrics is gathering the greatest strength is in the private sector, not through government deployments. To date, there has not been a publicized story of any private biometric system being compromised. At my office, for example, we use a fingerprint biometric component as a part of our time and attendance software. Employees can clock-in and clock-out with the system, and it has saved us a significant amount of revenue through the elimination of “buddy punching” (employees clocking in for each other). I think my company purchased the software from here.
The system could be hacked into, sure. But it does not hold any optical images of fingerprints, only a binary string that is unique to the person’s data points. There is really nothing anyone could do with that data even if they hacked into the system and got it. Plus, our data is proprietary to the management system, and not shared with any other program. It works great.
April 14th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
The implementation of biometrics for small scale use, such as clocking in of employees is indeed the ideal solution. It saves time.
However, if such systems are rolled out on a larger scale (Gattaca’esqe) then we should all be very concerned.
If a national database does come to fruition, then the risk of such a system being hacked could be catastrophic.
My main concern is that people are given little choice when it comes to how their personal data is managed (how will it be stored, used, and will data be past on to third parties?).
Regards
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April 2nd, 2009 at 6:36 pm
FAO Max the Micro Niche Finder
Please could you provide me with a valid email address. I tried responding to your query, but the email was undeliverable.
Kind regards
SolReka
June 3rd, 2009 at 2:08 pm
When we are rolling out a Biometric System, it is very important that the right people are employed to do the job. Ofcourse all systems have a breaking point, but if people who have enough experience and expertise in this field will make sure the data is much more secured.
The main issue is that even though fingerprint recognition is a very old technology (first criminal was prosecuted on the basis of fingerprints 100 years ago), digitalizing of the fingerprints is relatively new.
I work for a biometric a company called Bayometric (www.bayometric.com) in California. Even in small scale applications we recommend the right products to the clients and explain the pros and cons of the system.
There are ways to enrypt data, create templates that ensure that the privacy of the person giving the fingerprint is protected. Even if the biometric server is hacked, the data is of no use to the hacker.
October 6th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
When America really decides to jump on this bandwagon, we are all going to be in some serious risk of losing our personal identities. It’s obvious that these systems, such as optical scanners and fingerprint machines, can be used for much more than simply identification.
I was stumbling through the web the other day and found this article, http://www.sensortips.com/2009/09/11/iris-recognition-sensor-gets-a-speed-boost/ which talks about how iris/optical sensors are becoming more common and getting more sophisticated. How does the world not realize that this will eventually result in complete lack of privacy from the government.
Oh yeah! And this article was posted on SEPTEMBER 11th. Coincidence? I think not!
September 9th, 2011 at 11:31 pm
This can have more negative than positive consequences and more chances of catastrophic outcomes. Besides, I don’t really like the idea of involving human body with technology. I know it has been done for a while now, but it has been done for some greater good, like pacemakers and stuff like that. To use biomaterial simply for the identification…hm…don’t like it!
September 21st, 2011 at 1:35 pm
Technology is evolving faster than humanity. We cannot keep up with the swift changes we see going on around us.
Alas, we have become a race of disillusioned discontent sentient beings, not sure where our place is on this rock we call home.
Perhaps the hive mind culture is going to happen sooner rather than later.
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December 3rd, 2011 at 2:13 am
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