Reader Opinion
From: Gary Miller
To: Al Colombo
Date: July 18, 1999
Subject: Biometrics
Al,
C-SPAN's Washington Journal had a rep. from the International Biometric Ind. Assoc. (IBIA) on one of the morning programs this week.
I was pleasantly surprised that most of the call-in responses from conservatives and liberals condemmed the technology as being linked to Big Brother.
When you visit their site @ www.ibia.org, the latest issue of their online mag has this statement from one of their board members...
"The IBIA is a Washington, D.C.-based trade association that represents the interests of the industry in legislative and regulatory matters, and promotes the use of biometric technology as an effective way to safeguard people, data and facilities without sacrificing privacy."
WITHOUT SACRIFICING PRIVACY? Ya, I bet!
Bro. Gary
Gary,
I have reported for some time on biometric solutions for access control and other security applications where the safety/security of a facility hinges on being able to identity key holders. Biometrics offer an unusually high degree of security in that no two people share identical biometric criteria. At the same time, I recognize the concerns that many have regarding the issue of allowing anyone to store their biometric pattern in a database.
I have to admit that it's a hard call for me because I know that most of the corporations who use biometric solutions already know all they need to know about their employees. The biometric component only allows them to distinguish them from someone else with a higher degree of surity.
I've been in the security profession for a long time, and it's hard for me to rationalize that all uses of biometrics is wrong, especially knowing how easy it is to dupe cards. Even the gleaning of pins using something as low tech as a pair of binocs.
People will have a choice, either submit to the biometric access control system by providing a retina/iris, finger, or voice scan or just not work there. Tough decisions face us all.
Al
