Hello,

I need two responses of at least 150 words each for the below students discussions for this week. Also in the bold below are the questions the students at answering.

1) Discuss the potential problems using biometrics can present to society, and in particular, what effect the loss of biometric records could have.

Student one:

There are multiple seen and unforeseen issues with biometrics and their relationships to society. One of the biggest ongoing battles is technology and privacy. This everlasting argument is currently degrading the relationships between citizens and state.

People don’t trust the government and do not want them collecting information on them. Biometric identification is being utilized in grey areas that are not always public knowledge. For instance, database cross referencing. There is not a clear and concise line within the government implementation as Ashbourne points out in reference to border control. Ashbourne also states that people must be made aware of the databases in which they are being inputted, which is not always the case. Not only that, there must be trust in the governments ability to keep the information (data records) safe. This ability to keep the information safeguarded depends on the level of competency those managing the databases have. This is derived from the clarity and purpose of the system. With clear and concise guidelines, administrators will work more effectively and consistently to safeguard. This is a paramount task, both in the government and private sector.

Loss of biometric records can be detrimental to an individual. Once this physiological information has been compromised, it can no longer be used. The consequences of not being able to accurately identify yourself are astronomical. This is identity theft in the worst possible case.

Other problems will arise with time. Unforeseen as we speak is the amount of information stored in these databases. The amount of information, coupled with the way biometric authentication works, will lead to more issues with accurately identifying someone.

Other potential problems with biometrics in the public sector specifically, is that these systems at times can be slower than human verification. This can slow down efficiency in larger arenas, where time and efficiency equal money, such as airports and train stations. It is often much faster to engage with a human representative than it is to deal with identification verification through a kiosk.

Aside from that, biometrics also do not cover 100% of any given population. There are plenty of health conditions and physical issues that deem biometrics ineffective.

All and all, the future of biometrics will be challenging and seems to be the theme of the course. Thanks for stopping by.

Tyler

Reference:

Ashbourn, Julian. ( © 2014). Biometrics in the new world: the cloud, mobile technology and pervasive identity. [Books24x7 version] Available from http://common.books24x7.com.ezproxy2.apus.edu/toc…..

Student two:

Hi class.,

Discuss the potential problems using biometrics can present to society, and in particular, what effect the loss of biometric records could have.

Freedom in the united states comprises of the ability for a citizen to do whatever they see fit in the eyes of the state and other organizations, for example, we have the right to privacy, a right to freedom of speech and so forth. Biometric technology has the ability to identify someone uniquely which means an individual’s privacy can be compromised at any time, so some people have been skeptical about the developing technology. A past review of biometric technologies states that its use in the United States has brought about many social-cultural problems. These problems are based on fears on the centralization of biometric identification information and the mishandling of this data and so much more. The social-cultural problems fall in three categories which are information privacy, physical privacy, and religious objections. Information privacy relates to tracing capabilities of biometrics and the threat of function creep which is the process by which the original purpose for obtaining the information is widened to include other purposes. Misuse of data for example identity theft is also a social-cultural problem and this has affected the e-commerce sector more. Physical privacy involves stigmatization where some segments of society find fingerprinting with law enforcement oppression of rights (Garfinkel, 2000). Actual harm is another physical problem as some users perceive this technology can cause harm to them which will lead to reluctance in the participation of implementation of the program however much it may not be harmful. Hygiene which involves the cleanliness of sensors is another issue as a user may not be comfortable with placing their fingers in the same scanner with others during a flu season. Religious obligations relate to some religions consider biometrics to be “A Mark of the Beast” and this is based on the book of Revelation in the bible.

It is always negative effects related to loss of biometric records. This could lead first of all to the system malfunction as it uses these records to verify human identity, secondly, it will raise trust issue alarms among its users as they will feel the biometric system isn’t capable of handling their privacy and security. In case the system was hacked into then the hackers can do all malicious things with the data as they please for example identity theft.

Reference

https://www.privacyrights.org/blog/privacy-today-review-current-issues

-Noel