Brands and corporations are always the first to adopt new technologies. The latest tech trend that is being adopted across a range of industries is biometrics. This is the technology that collects your biological or behavioral characteristics, stores them, analyses them, and uses that data for identification. It is being used so that employees can access certain parts of an office building without an easily stolen keycard, or by airports using facial recognition and CCTV to boost security and speed up waiting times. While it might be great to be able to access your phone using nothing more than your fingerprint, the question of privacy is being avoided by too many. The battle between technology and privacy begins yet again, and our track record of success in this fight is not a positive one.
Security and Privacy
There are enough potential benefits for biometric application that privacy is taking a backseat. Fingerprint or facial/iris recognition may be easier to use than passwords and provide easier authentication, but the technology is not without its flaws. The big issue is the security of your biometric data. Your personal identifiable information (PII) needs to be used in order to gain access control to your phone, place of work, or even for shopping. That entails an extensive list of publicly accessible information about you. The fact that biometrics are so visible is a major concern. Consider how many photographs entities like Facebook have of you, and how easy it is for hackers to crack fingerprint scanners on phones, and the problem of privacy starts to become more apparent.
Employee Concerns
Biometrics in the workplace are not a new worry. Employers have been gathering personal data about team members for years, but biometrics offers a whole new level of intrusive data collection. One aspect that concerns many that are worried about privacy is the ongoing, ineffective use of drug tests. When employers are able to collect, analyze, and store your genetic information through the guise of a drug test, the breach of privacy is obviously an area that needs some strong legislation. There are methods for avoiding this potential breach of personal privacy. Urine tests are fairly common, especially in the US, and synthetic urine from some suppliers are very difficult to differentiate from the real thing, and can therefore help protect your biometric privacy should the need arise. While this is providing the privacy-conscious with some way to counter intrusive biometric collection, the fact is that capitalism is driving the technology. That means that profits are going to be the main driver of the biometric trend, with privacy an increasingly unimportant concern.
Data Storage and Privacy
One of the biggest concerns with the growing use of biometrics is how businesses are storing the information that they gather. When workplaces are using biometrics to analyze their staff as well as their customers, that results in a lot of stored data, and that means hackers are a very real worry. No data storage system is 100% safe, and cloud storage or in-house servers are vulnerable to cybercrime. If criminals are able to view and steal your PII, then they will be able to access anything you use that relies on biometrics. When banks are allowing for biometric payments and hotels are using the technology to make it easier for guests to check in, that opens a whole new world of exploitation for hackers.
For improving security, biometrics are clearly of benefit. However, when the cost of that security is the slow erosion of our privacy and personal information, the costs may outweigh the benefits. Biometrics are here to stay, but the ongoing risk of walking blindly into a world that has no personal privacy is clearly something that needs to be addressed. Unfortunately, the question of whether profits and convenience will override the need for privacy may have already been answered.
