Access Control
& Security Systems

The Nov. 7 issue of Business Week quotes the following findings of a survey by the National Consortium of Justice & Information Statistics:

• 82 percent of Americans think it's likely that every adult will have at least one biometric ID on file before decade's end.
• 56% of Americans feel that the correct identification of people outweighs concerns about providing key information.
• nine in 10 think it's important to design safeguards against potential misuses of biometric IDs.

Business Week also points out that there are no laws on the books to regulate the storing and selling of biometric information. This, despite the rollout of biometric systems across the country by law enforcement and businesses. Already, more than 40 airports are using electronic fingerprint-scanning technology from Minnetonka, Minn.-based Identix to do background checks on airport workers and to create badges that, when read by an electronic device, allow access to restricted areas.

"Most of these applications seem harmless at the start, but then there are new applications. Soon you have full-force Big Brother watching over you," Chris Hoofnagle, legal counsel of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington (D.C.) privacy-advocacy group, told the magazine.

Read the whole story at businessweek.com

This month in Access Control

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• More from April's issue