Biometrics in Everyday Life Biometrics Research Paper

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Even public schools are not immune to the growing biometrics trend, as the scanning of the literal 'student body' is becoming commonplace. Some schools use portable scanners to collect digital images of the students' fingerprints, which need to be updated regularly as the students grow and their fingers change. Biometrics is used for everything from the authentication of new transfer students, to providing the ability to buy lunch in the cafeteria without cash, to checking out books from the library to recording student attendance (Graziano 1).

As this trend continues to grow, there is some concern about privacy issues, which are especially sensitive when minors are involved. For example, Claudia Graziano reports in the article Learning to Live with Biometrics, Chris Hoofnagle, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C. believes that fingerprint scanning schools "sets a dark precedent, conditioning students at a young age to embrace the idea of Big Brother-style biometric tracking...If ever there was a generation that would not oppose a government system for universal ID, it's this one" (1)

It is certainly understandable that biometrics would conjure up images of futuristic Orwellian disaster scenarios. However according Graziano the main complaint of using fingerprint scanning schools is not about privacy but about a lack of efficiency and convenience. Graziano reports that Bob Engen, president of Educational Biometric Technology, suggests that "speed, not security or privacy, seems to be students' biggest concern with the system. The fingerprint-recognition systems tend to run slowly - slower than manually punching in a number, for instance - if a school is using a computer that is more than a few years old. Additionally, large student populations can slow the system since it has to run through every stored image before identifying the best match" (1).

Clearly there are still adjustments to be made for biometrics technology is used pervasively in businesses, homes and schools.

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However, modern biometrics are machine readable and recordable. Biometric information recorded by machine, and the data linked to biometric observations, can be copied easily, shared quickly and widely, combined, and stored for long periods of time without degrading. Biometrically authenticating identification by machine is highly accurate and, more important, it is highly usable personal information. It allows institutions to collect data and index it to precise and highly accurate human identifiers, making it useful in countless ways (Vacca 13-14).

Currently, businesses are the most prevalent users of biometric technology as compared to homes and schools. However the popularity of this technology in all realms is continuing to escalate. Does this mean we are headed for a "Big Brother" type of society? Or are we merely looking forward to a more secure, more convenient and more efficient society? Only time will tell, however if the present is any indication of the future, modern technology will soon advance to the point where virtually no human function or interaction will be technology-free.

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