Biometric industry association will provide voice in public debate

Oct 1, 1998 12:00 PM, George Partingron

Do biometric applications violate privacy, or do they enhance it? The question is open to debate, and members of the newly formed International Biometric Industry Association (IBIA) want to ensure their voices are heard. The Washington, D.C.-based group will work to mitigate policy decisions unfavorable to biometrics by educating the public, lawmakers and regulators. "Without the facts, bad choices will be made that severely limit the market for biometrics," says Bill Wilson, president of Recognition Systems and chairman of the trade association. "Biometrics offer safeguards for people, data and facilities without sacrificing privacy. Policy makers must hear this message." Recognition Systems, Visionics, Identicator and IriScan are organizing charter members of the association. Saflink Corp. and Keyware Technologies have also joined as charter members.

The $40-million biometrics industry seeks to overcome negative public perception, which threatens, for example, the use of fingerprint identification on driver's licenses. The public views such applications as invasions of privacy; the IBIA says privacy will be enhanced.

Biometrics may be viewed as a gate that prevents access to private information, explains IBIA executive director Richard Norton. "Right now, you do not have much in the way of confidentiality," says Norton. "Your social security number is floating around out there. PINs protect access to accounts, but they are vulnerable. By using biometrics, you put a layer between public access and your information."

The problem, says Norton, is that few realize how biometric data is used. In many cases, the biometric information means nothing, he says. Digital biometric templates containing a person's fingerprint, iris scan or hand geometry are of no value to others, because "it is nothing that can be translated other than by the specific device that is used to measure it," Norton says. "So no one can take that information from a file in a computer and make sense of it. Beyond that, it is usually encrypted. Most importantly, the information is not shared with anybody. There is no plan, no design and no application that allows a biometric to be shared."

Norton says the association has formed an independent advisory committee to help deal with the privacy issue. Members of the committee are Simon Davies, a data privacy expert at the London School of Economics; Judith Markowitz, author and consultant on speech recognition; Benjamin Miller, founder of CardTech/SecurTech; James Wayman, director of San Jose State University's National Biometric Test Center; and John Woodward, attorney and legal consultant on biometric issues.

The IBIA will be responsive to public concerns, says Norton. "We are open to discuss and explain biometrics and perhaps even compromise to make sure the public is not uncomfortable with how the technology is used," he says. The IBIA is open to all biometric manufacturers, integrators and end-users who agree to honor a code of ethics that recognizes the protection of personal privacy as a fundamental obligation of the industry.

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