-Caveat Lector- The article below is from the following website. http://www.intellectualcapital.com/issues/issue225/item4244.asp The links at the end of the article are interesting as well. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Biometrics Are Coming! Biometrics Are Coming! by Amitai Etzioni Thursday, April 29, 1999 Comments: 85 posts Less Privacy Is Good for Us (and You) : Privacy should not be treated as a sacred right, argues Amitai Etzioni. Search Here we go again. While civil libertarians so far have been unable to cite even one incident of abuse by the new biometrics industry, they are rolling out their heaviest guns to try to shoot it down. Biometrics is a technology that recognizes a person by one of his or her unique biological features, such as the pattern of his or her hands, eyes or voice. Wells Fargo recently introduced automatic teller machines (ATMs) that recognize their customers’ faces. Similarly, Mr. Payroll Corp., a Texas check-cashing service, welcomes its customers personally because the computer is familiar with their mug. Entry to Disney’s Magic Kingdom can be secured by laying your hand at the appropriate place at the gate. Purdue Employees Federal Credit Card Union clients need not even say “open sesame” to get to their cash; touching a plate with their finger suffices. And numerous other uses are coming online or are in advanced stages of development. A personal communal boon Opposition to these new technologies is particularly troubling given that the benefits are considerable. Once biometric devices are more fully developed, and as unit costs decline (they already have fallen as low as $99 per scanner), a person may forget his password, pin number and access code, and leave his ID card and keys at home. Consumers can be recognized by biological features such as fingerprints, eyes or voices Moreover, people may cease to worry about identity theft, in which criminals acquire the identity of others to empty their bank accounts, abuse their credit cards and leave their victims to prove their innocence. Given proper use of biometrics, at least 1,200 Americans will be spared this rather unsettling experience every day. For business, biometrics promises to sharply curtail billions lost each year due to credit-card fraud and the passing of bad checks. Maybe even more beneficial will be the reduction in security costs, as more and more locked doors (and computers) will respond only to those authorized. Not all guards will get pink slips, but fewer will be needed. Communities, too, stand to reap considerable benefits. Once biometric devices are widely deployed, they will make it much more difficult for the estimated 330,000 criminals to remain on the lam. These fugitives not only avoid trial and incarceration but also often commit additional crimes while they roam the country with little concern. And biometrics will help child-care centers and kindergartens screen out individuals convicted of child abuse and violent crime. (In a study conducted by six states, they found 6,200 such employees had used false identification documents to get jobs working with children). Biometrics also will cut the $16 billion lost to the U.S. Treasury each year to people who collect multiple tax refunds and Social Security payments, and will help curb welfare fraud and illegal immigration. In short, while biometric devices do not make coffee or do the dishes, their potential benefits are numerous and diverse. Critics argue that biometrics are hyped and not 100% reliable. In a test conducted at the University of Georgia, in which 18,000 students were screened to ensure that they did not pass their unlimited meals tickets to friends, the scanners did not recognize some 10 students. Jim Wayman, who studies these systems at San Jose State University, reports a failure rate as high as 2%. But even according to the most pessimistic assessments, biometrics defies comparison because it is much more reliable than existing modes of identification. While fooling biometrics is extremely difficult, people can buy false driver's licenses and green cards for $50 in many American towns bordering Mexico. Most college campuses are awash in false, paper-based ID cards used to purchase drinks. Answering the civil libertarians Still, critics are not satisfied. Systems that rely on finger recognition, one notes, can be fooled -- by a “freshly severed real one.” It is not a pleasant prospect but hardly leads one to prefer prevailing modes of identifications over biometrics. One of these days, as biometrics are going to be employed by millions of people, civil libertarians will find some people who have been mistreated as a result, which no one should take lightly. But instead of asking how to minimize such problems, and pondering whether such rare failures could justify a rejection of biometrics, civil libertarians condemn them wholesale. A bill introduced in the California Assembly would treat biometrics like narcotics, criminalizing “trafficking” in biometric information. “It’s part of a growing trend to treat people guilty before proven innocent,” David Banisar, staff counsel for the privacy advocacy group EPIC, says of biometrics. “You don’t need a person’s fingerprint," argues Solange Bitol, of the American Civil Liberties Union. "You don’t need a person’s eyes. … The amount of information we are giving up in the name of efficiency is frightening." Some specific privacy concerns that need to be addressed are lost in the indiscriminate civil-libertarian broadsides. The main one arises out of the fact that biometric scanners can recognize people from several feet away. Hence, scanners can identify people who do not voluntarily present their mug to cash a check or display their hand to gain access to a guarded computer. Thus, soon an enterprising retailer may scan people on a beach and send advertising to all those who wear no sunglasses. Solveig Singleton of the CATO Institute argues that little harm is involved, just a bit more junk mail. And such “targeted” advertising may beat being flooded with unwanted catalogues. Still, many Americans who learn they have been involuntarily targeted believe their privacy has been violated. When credit-card companies recently sought to use pictures they garnered from driver's licenses to better identify their customers, public protest squashed the project. The same happened when Intel introduced its new Pentium III computer chip to combat online fraud. While none of these initiatives directly involved biometrics, they provided a measure of Americans' reactions to being involuntarily identified. A true defense against totalitarianism One cannot tell at this point if these protests are limited squalls that swirl as the public becomes accustomed to new technologies or whether they set precedents that will limit the use of biometrics to consensual applications. It is clear, though, that the biometrics industry, the Federal Trade Commission and privacy advocates agree that children are out of bounds for any such data-mining systems -- unless the parents consent. The most serious concerns involve the government’s use of biometrics to get information from private databases. No current law would prevent the FBI or local police forces from using data available to everyone who sells used tires or costume jewelry. About the only consolation one might have is that, contrary to popular belief, new identification technologies do not usher in totalitarian governments, but once totalitarian governments take over, they use whatever means of control they can usurp. Strengthening the foundations of civil society is the best defense against totalitarianism, not trying vainly to return the genie of biometrics into the bottle from which it already has escaped. This article is based on Amitai Etzioni's latest book, The Limits of Privacy, just published by Basic Books. He teaches at George Washington University. He can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Related Links What are the different types of biometric devices currently in use? Deborah Hurley of the Harvard's Information Infrastructure Project fears that biometrics may be used in overly invasive ways. Julian Ashbourn of the Association of Biometrics asserts that biometrics can be applied in any situation when a person's identity needs to be verified. Automatic ID News covers industry trends and developments in biometrics. Read a transcript of the Subcommittee on Domestic and International Policy's hearing on "Biometrics and the Future of Money." <A HREF="http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/ctc449.htm">ctc449.htm at www.usatoday.com</A> <A HREF="http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/bank/hba48784.000/hba48784_0f.htm"> Biometrics and the Future of Money</A> <A HREF="http://www.autoidnews.com/">Automatic ID News Website</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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