Biometric identification systems. What risks for our privacy?

Films like Star Wars, Mission Impossible or Matrix, to mention the most famous, have always showed us scenes where personal identification, especially to access reserved areas, is verified by means of voice or some other physical traits. Science fiction? Not always.

 

Biometric identification, this is its name, is a computer-controlled analysis that identifies an individual by measuring some biological traits scanned by sensors and by matching them with the data stored in a database.

 

Historically, biometric identification dates back to 1870 when a Frenchman, Alphonse Bertillon, started to use it in a Paris prison for registering and identifying all detainees. Today, biometrics is strongly increasing and the integration of biometric technologies in mobile devices is helping this sector significantly. According to a study by Acuity Market Intelligence, mobile biometric systems’ turnover will reach in 2020 33.3 billion USD, with 4.76 billion of mobile devices enabled to biometric detections. This technology is now used to control physical and logical access and, since 9/11 2001, has been increasingly used also in police checks (e.g. airports).

 

Read More: Biometric identification systems. What risks for our privacy? – Kroll Ontrack UK Blog