Privacy in Biometrics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Privacy in Biometrics - Essay Example Although there are various advantages of using biometrics technology, such as its validity and authenticity and its wide-ranging utilization in passports, identity cards, attendance systems, etc. In the field of information technology, biometrics refers to â€Å"those technologies that measure and analyze human characteristics such as DNA, eye retina, irises, fingerprints, voice pattern, facial pattern and hand measurements† (Rouse, 2008). In this paper, the focus will remain on the use of fingerprints as the major characteristics for identifying a person. More importantly, the paper will include discussion and arguments regarding some of the issues that arise due to usage of biometrics publicly (Woodward, 2003, pp. 23-25). Although biometrics has resulted in number of benefits to the organizations in terms of identity management, however, the advancement of this technology and the application of this technology on public level have raised various questions regarding the accur acy of this technology along with privacy and confidentiality of the data that has been one of the major issues related to biometrics. Expansion in the utilization of internet has been one of the foremost reasons that have resulted in greater utilization of biometrics in various parts of the world. Nowadays, biometrics has become one of the most suitable and affordable solution for organizations to identify their employees for identification purpose at entry and exit locations, as well as during attendance on daily basis. At the same time, biometrics has also helped e-commerce industry to progress by ensuring security of data in finance-related organizations such as banks, shopping centers, etc that now use biometrics technology (Zhang, 2006, pp. 31-38) to prevent any fraudulent actions that usually occur in absence of such technologies. One of the basic reasons of huge popularity of biometrics technology has been its use by the law enforcement agencies around the world that has res ulted in its usage on mass level. While this utilization became the reason of its popularity, it has resulted in initiation of debates regarding the confidentiality and security of the data; in other words, data and information management by the law enforcement agencies and various governments globally (Ex-sight, n.d.). Discussion As mentioned earlier in the paper, biometrics while providing enormous number of advantages in terms of identification and verification of individuals in terms of their characteristics, it has resulted in various ethical, social, and professional issues that have been the major focus of this paper. Most importantly, personal privacy is the foremost issue that has remained under debate related to biometrics for a long time. Analysis of literature (Campisi, 2013, pp. 11-17) has indicated that although biometrics technology allows organizations and law enforcement agencies to identify an individual and trace a criminal out of the huge population, it is a dire ct failure to comply with human rights regulations for privacy and anonymity. At various platforms, there have been protests regarding the inappropriate usage of biometric data by law enforcement agencies, which results in an adverse impact on right of freedom of the public. Besides breach of personal privacy, biometrics techno