Biometric Identification Technology, Coming To A (Fill In The Blank) Near You
Community Guest Blog post by By John Trader
“Biometrics, that’s the eye scanner used to open the door we saw in that movie, right?”
There is a new identification technology phenomenon that is rapidly sweeping across the globe which is used to identify an individual by their physiological characteristics with near absolute certainty. It’s called biometrics. With the unprecedented rise of terrorism, identity theft, fraud, illegal immigration and a host of other iniquitous activities in the last 10 years, people felt unsafe about the world they lived in and businesses were searching for a solution to stop profit losses suffered from unscrupulous employees and customers taking advantage of inadequate internal systems.
These feelings fueled scientists and software engineers to transform biometrics from a sci-fi Hollywood movie special effect into a practical application that could be used to combat the injustices that false identities perpetuated and create efficiencies and tangible cost savings that businesses could realize. Biometrics is truly capitalism at its best – a concept turned into a money making opportunity to solve a real world problem. However, even though the use of biometrics is increasingly permeating throughout many vertical markets such as banking, healthcare, point of sale, workforce management, public safety and membership management, it is still largely unknown and misunderstood in the U.S. for the benefits it can offer, functionality and its ability to protect someone’s identity.
What problems does biometric technology address and what benefits does it create?
Having the ability to positively identify an individual with near absolute certainty through their biological characteristics offers inherent benefits that easily translate into increased security and safety for everyone. The best examples of this are biometric identification governmental deployments in airports, shipping ports, border crossings, passport applications and public safety (prisons, jails, etc.). In fact, the first market testing of biometric technology originated in government largely because it was expensive and best suited for large scale deployments. As time moved on biometric technology evolved and became more refined and practical for small scale deployments. Businesses began to take notice and utilize biometrics’ unique characteristics to help them with their own problems like employee time theft, loss prevention, identity fraud, access control, PCI Compliance and information security.
Biometric identification technology has the unique ability to address these types of problems and prevent unnecessary revenue loss while tightening security and boosting productivity and operational efficiency - key earnings metrics that businesses rely on to maximize profits. Biometrics validates the true identity of an individual which in turn tightens audit trails and augments employee and customer accountability.
“But I heard that using biometric technology is a violation of an individual’s privacy.”
In certain circles, it’s virtually impossible to mention the words “biometric identification” without also having a spirited discussion about how using biometric technology purportedly is a direct violation of an individual’s right to privacy. The issue regarding biometrics and privacy is if someone enrolls in a biometric identification system (referred to as a “biometric template”), they are providing an image of their fingerprint, finger vein, palm vein, iris pattern or other physiological characteristic which is stored on a server or a computer.
The truth of the matter is that biometric identity enrollment templates stored on a server or computers are not actually images at all. They are a mathematical representation of the data points that a biometric algorithm extracts from the scanned fingerprint, finger vein, palm vein or iris. The identity template is simply a binary data file, a series of zeros and ones. The algorithm then uses the template to positively identify an individual during subsequent fingerprint scans. No image is ever stored or transmitted across a network. In addition, the algorithm is “one way” which means that the template that is extracted is nearly impossible to be used to recreate the original biometric image. In other words, it is nearly impossible to reverse engineer the data that is sent to positively identify an individual and successfully “steal” their biometric identity.
Don’t be surprised to see biometric identification become more prevalent in our daily lives
From health clubs to retail outlets to airports to school cafeterias, biometric technology is becoming ubiquitous as the trusted identification resource all over the country. The distinct advantages it offers are increasingly being discovered by businesses, governments, schools and organizations that educate themselves on the value of the technology and extensively research the biometric system that best suits their needs.
If you are considering biometric technology for your own unique needs, take the time to learn and perform your due diligence. Most importantly ask questions, read case studies about successful deployments and talk to others that use the technology. The digital world has made access to information relatively easy and provides comprehensive resources to review.
John Trader is a Communication Specialist with M2SYS Technology which provides technology that makes biometric software affordable, simple to integrate and inexpensive to support.
