Biometric Boom: How the Private Sector Commodifies Human Characteristics

Biometric technology has become an increasingly common part of daily life. Although biometrics have been used for decades, recent ad- vances and new uses have made the technology more prevalent, particu- larly in the private sector. This Note examines how widespread use of biometrics by the private sector is commodifying human characteristics. As the use of biometrics has become more extensive, it exacerbates and exposes individuals and industry to a number of risks and problems asso- ciated with biometrics. Despite public belief, biometric systems may be bypassed, hacked, or even fail. The more a characteristic is utilized, the less value it will hold for security purposes. Once compromised, a biome- tric cannot be replaced as would a password or other security device. This Note argues that there are strong justifications for a legal struc- ture that builds hurdles to slow the adoption of biometrics in the private sector. By examining the law and economics and personality theories of commodification, this Note identifies market failure and potential harm to personhood due to biometrics. The competing theories justify a reform to protect human characteristics from commodification. This Note presents a set of principles and tools based on defaults, disclosures, incen- tives, and taxation to discourage use of biometrics, buying time to streng- then the technology, educate the public, and establish legal safeguards for when the technology is compromised or fails

Health Care Information Technology: Securing the Electronic Health Record with Biometric Technology

The principal focus of this paper is to examine the integration of biometric technology into healthcare’s information technology systems. Biometric technology, a rapidly evolving mechanism, analyzes specific anatomical and physiological features of an individual for identity verification (Perrin, 2002). Moreover, as the federal government has mandated all health records to be electronic in 2014, the implementation of biometrics has become a prevalent means of security. In an effort to adhere to the patient privacy laws authorized by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), biometric recognition is currently used to restrict access to verified health care providers and detect fraudulent account access. This paper considers the advantages, disadvantages, and ethical consequences of utilizing biometric technology to secure the electronic health record in regards to cost, usability, accessibility, and accuracy. In addition to evaluating the primary application, the essay acknowledges the potential use of biometric technology to identify patients by vasculature scanning in the future

Measuring Bias in AI Models with Application to Face Biometrics: An Statistical Approach

The new regulatory framework proposal on Artificial Intelligence (AI) published by the European Commission establishes a new risk-based legal approach. The proposal highlights the need to develop adequate risk assessments for the different uses of AI. This risk assessment should address, among others, the detection and mitigation of bias in AI. In this work we analyze statistical approaches to measure biases in automatic decision-making systems. We focus our experiments in face recognition technologies. We propose a novel way to measure the biases in machine learning models using a statistical approach based on the N-Sigma method. N-Sigma is a popular statistical approach used to validate hypotheses in general science such as physics and social areas and its application to machine learning is yet unexplored. In this work we study how to apply this methodology to develop new risk assessment frameworks based on bias analysis and we discuss the main advantages and drawbacks with respect to other popular statistical tests.Comment: 8 page

RECENT ADVANCEMENTS IN EAR BIOMETRICS: A REVIEW

Ascertaining the identity of a person is quite an important aspect of Forensic Science. There are so many physiological features have been proved to be highly discriminating among individuals. Biometrics play a significant role in individualizing a person. Fingerprint, Palm print, Retina and Iris recognition are the most popular examples of it. Fingerprint and iris are generally considered to allow more accurate biometric recognition than the face, but the face is more easily used in surveillance scenarios where fingerprint and iris capture are not feasible. However, the face by itself is not yet as accurate and flexible as desired for this scenario due to expression changes, source of illumination, make-up, etc. Besides these limitations, ear images can be acquired in a similar manner to face images. A number of researchers have suggested that the human ear is unique enough to each individual to allow practical use as a biometric. In this article an attempt has been made to review all the recent researches of a decade made in the field of Ear Biometrics

Estado del arte de la seguridad en sistemas biométricos.

La necesidad de las organizaciones en la búsqueda de la evolución en el uso de tecnologías, la conexión a través de internet, el intercambio de información, el manejo de grandes volúmenes de datos ha generado al mismo tiempo la automatización de tareas para reducción de costos, errores y tiempo en ejecución de tareas. Así mismo los sistemas de identificación personal que estaban ligados a posesiones de objetos como llaves, tarjetas, números secretos o palabras claves han evolucionado, dando lugar a la necesidad de automatizar mecanismos de control de acceso a los recursos e identificación de las personas por medio de los sistemas biométricos. Dada la importancia que han cobrado los sistemas biométricos para el control de acceso e identificación y la falta de información consolidada se realiza la recopilación de técnicas, herramientas biométricas, basado en publicaciones recientes, tesis doctorales, documentos de investigación e información relevante que nos permita transferir conocimiento y mejores prácticas de usabilidad y prevención de ataques de seguridad en los sistemas biométricos de control de acceso e identificación. Esta investigación generará referencia a otros investigadores y organizaciones que requieran evaluar la viabilidad de implementar sistemas biométricos de control de acceso e identificación y servirá como base para alimentar la generación de conclusiones y diferencia de las características de los sistemas biométricos de reconocimiento y autenticación.The need of organizations in the search for evolution in the use of technologies, the connection through the internet, the exchange of information, the handling of large volumes of data has generated at the same time the automation of tasks to reduce costs, errors and time in execution of tasks. Likewise, the systems of personal identification that were linked to possessions of objects such as keys, cards, secret numbers or keywords have evolved, giving rise to the need to automate mechanisms for controlling access to resources and identifying people through the biometric systems. Given the importance of biometric systems for access control and identification and the lack of consolidated information, the collection of techniques and biometric tools is made, based on recent publications, doctoral theses, research documents and relevant information that allows us to transfer knowledge and best practices of usability and prevention of security attacks in biometric systems of access control and identification. This research will generate reference to other researchers and organizations that need to evaluate the feasibility of implementing biometric systems of access control and identification and will serve as a basis to feed the generation of conclusions and difference of the characteristics of the biometric recognition and authentication systems

Multi-Modal Biometrics: Applications, Strategies and Operations

The need for adequate attention to security of lives and properties cannot be over-emphasised. Existing approaches to security management by various agencies and sectors have focused on the use of possession (card, token) and knowledge (password, username)-based strategies which are susceptible to forgetfulness, damage, loss, theft, forgery and other activities of fraudsters. The surest and most appropriate strategy for handling these challenges is the use of naturally endowed biometrics, which are the human physiological and behavioural characteristics. This paper presents an overview of the use of biometrics for human verification and identification. The applications, methodologies, operations, integration, fusion and strategies for multi-modal biometric systems that give more secured and reliable human identity management is also presented