Seeking Out Problematic Sources In Biometrics Early Instead Of Waiting To Treat Its Symptoms

In all of my blogs about biometrics, I address an ongoing concern that the use of biometrics as an "identity document" or in personal identification is being deployed without further research and analysis on the potential magnitude of its implications. I find this topic very interesting in addition to the privacy issues surrounding databases. Therefore, I continued researching and reading articles about the subject of biometrics implementation as a more efficient security measure. I weighed the pros and cons of what I discovered before finding a document in which a public policy forum on biometrics was held. I am sure this is not likely to be the first or the last time a group convenes to determine the best approach to defining an appropriate policy for implementing biometric systems for various identity verification applications. I thought, "Whew! Finally, a collective, diverse group of intellectual individuals have taken measures in the interest of biometrics implications seriously enough to intiate the development of a suitable public policy." It is obvious that we will not be able to avoid every potential problem that comes with the use of biometrics, but how we may be able to minimize the impacts if we seek to find sources to the problem instead of waiting to treat symptoms.

I like the seeking the cure before the disease or at least analyzing and researching the issue to discover the source of problems. It is an approach that is taken in Project Quality Management and in healthcare as a natural, approach called homeopathy. If we can get to source of the disease or problem, we can prevent it instead of treating the symptoms which perpetuates the existence of the disease or problem. The public forum discussions on biometrics seem to be focused on taking the holistic approach as they sought diverse perspectives for meeting the challenges of biometrics in advance. In the article, a list of major concerns and recommendations have been proposed. I summarized them as the following:


1. Concern for the potential abuse of biometric systems
2. Using "biometrics in an immigration and citizenship context could create
we-versus-them mentality."
3. Trading off security with privacy concerns
4. Implementation of biometrics without establishing an identity policy
5. Failure to perform a proper assessment of biometric implications
6. Concern that "technology will drive policy if we don't ensure that policy
imperatives are driving the development of technology."
7. Addressing the need for "a business case for using biometric applications in
identity documentation, including a national identity card."
8. Concern for that the "perceived dichotomy between security and privacy is false."
9. "Use of biometrics in identity documentation presents genuine issues that merit
serious public discussion."
10. Monitoring and controlling quality and performance of such systems

Reference Article or Link:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/pub/biometrics.pdf