Biometrics and the Threat to Civil Liberties

Biometric systems fall into two distinct categories: authentication and identification. Authentication requires the subject to present some data, e.g. and ID card plus a fingerprint. Identification requires the provision of biometric data to be matched with a record already held on the system.

Appraisal of face-recognition systems: cameras scan faces of passengers to identify individuals whose facial data match database records, such as in an airport security system. These systems have been tested, e.g. in Boston, but they do not yet actually work. Failure rate of 38.6% in testing at boston Airport. Failures betcause of excessive false positive rates (biometric data incorrectly match those of someone on wanted list), uncontrolled environmental condition (shadows, image not frontal, individuals wearing disguises etc), watch list size (accuracy decreases significantly as database enlarges).

Privacy issues: match for positive identification relies oin user-defined system parameter: i.e. if set at high security more innocent individuals will be apprehended; low security - terrorists could escape. Possible civil liberties violation if airkoine passengers are scanned and tracked. Also, databases created provide a record of the individual’s whereabouts and could be used for tracking.

Othere authentification systems can present more problems. An example given is the combination of a fingerprint scanner with a driving licence. This dype of system presupposes a central stored database of biometric data. This in turn presents a target for mis-use and theft.

Reference : Margaret L. Johnson. "Biometrics and the Threat to Civil Liberties," Computer, vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 92, 90-91, April 2004