Biometrics

1
Biometrics
2
Overview

• What are biometrics?
• Differences between physiological and behavioral
  characteristic biometrics
• Effectiveness of biometrics
• Types of biometrics
• Concerns
• Ethical issues
• Case examples

3
What are Biometrics?

• Biometric technologies are defined as "automated
  methods of identifying or authenticating the
  identity of a living person based on a
  physiological or behavioral characteristic."

4
Biometric Categories

• Physiological

• Behavioral characteristic

5
Effectiveness of Biometrics

• Identifying power
• False Acceptance Rate (FAR)
• False Rejection Rate (FRR)

• Best statistical case
• The ID-3D hand geometry machine has FRR-FAR
  crossover of less than 0.2.

6
Types of Biometrics

• Finger Prints
• Eye Patterns
• Hand Scans
• Signature Dynamics
• Body odor
• DNA

7
Privacy Ethics

• Does biometric identification raise ethical
  issues regarding privacy similar to those
  associated with other forms of personal
  identification?
• Are there privacy/ethical issues unique or
  specific to biometric IDs?

8
Concerns

• Information privacy
• Physical privacy
• Religious objections

9
Similar Privacy Concerns

• Someone will legitimately gain access to personal
  information and use it to persons disadvantage.
• Information provided for particular purpose will
  be retrieved by third parties and used for
  purpose to which you have not agreed.
• Personal information stolen or accidentally
  released, exposing person to risk.

Is there a case for claiming that biometrics
creates privacy concerns apart from standard
privacy issues?
10
Biometrics and the Body

• To enhance the authenticity and security of
  personal information one has to be able to link
  that information to a particular person.
• Most reliable way to do that is to link the
  identifying information to ones body, not to SS
  or passport, which are more easily altered.

11
The Body and Privacy

• Our bodies directly affect our conception of
  ourselves and of us by others.
• Constantly judged by others on the way our body
  looks and works.
• Giving up a part of our bodies poses risks that
  we will lose control over how we are portrayed to
  and perceived by others.
• Biometric data are more sensitive than other
  kinds of data. Home address, birth date, SSN have
  no link to personal dignity or self-image.

12
Religious Objections

• Religious objections based on language found in
  "Revelation The Mark of the Beast
• The Beast causeth all, both small and great,
  rich and poor, free and bound, to receive a mark
  in their right hand, or in their foreheads And
  that no man might buy or sell, save that he had
  the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number
  of his name and his number is six hundred,
  threescore, and six.
• Revelation, 131618.

13
Ethical Issues Biometrics

• Who should be covered?
• For what uses
• National security?
• Employment?
• Insurance?
• Retail?
• Voluntary or mandatory?
• Rights of those targeted?
• Responsibilities of users?
• Accountability for misuse or negligence?

14
Case Examples

• At Coca-Cola Co., hand-scanning machines recently
  replaced the time card for many workers.
• In New Jersey and six other states, fingerprint
  scanners are now used to crack down on people
  claiming welfare benefits using two different
  names.
• In Cook County, Illinois, a sophisticated camera
  that analyzes the iris patterns of an
  individual's eye is helping ensure that the right
  people are released from jail.
• MasterCard International Inc. and Visa USA Inc.
  have begun to study the feasibility of using
  finger-scanning devices at the point of sale to
  verify that the card user is really the
  cardholder. The scanners would compare
  fingerprints with biometric information stored on
  a microchip embedded in the credit card.
• Walt Disney World in Orlando has started taking
  hand scans of people who purchase yearly passes.
  These visitors now must pass through a scanner
  when entering the park preventing them from
  lending their passes to other people.
• The Immigration and Naturalization Service is
  letting a select group of travelers bypass
  lengthy lines at New York's John F. Kennedy
  International Airport and Newark international
  Airport by sticking their bands and special cards
  the service has issued into an automated
  turnstile.

15
A Commercial Case
16
Summary

• Biometrics are here to stay
• Utilizing biometrics for personal authentication
  is becoming convenient and considerably more
  accurate than current methods
• There is a risk of "Big Brother" relating to
  information privacy and functional creep.

17
References

• http//www.privacy.gov.au/
• http//biometrics.cse.msu.edu/index.html
• http//www.computer.org
• http//www.ibia.org/
• http//www.google.com