Government adoption of biometric technologies will lead to acceptance, says report
The Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) has carried out a study on the potential impact of biometric technologies - such as fingerprint and face recognition - concluding that the implementation of such technologies by governments is 'both inevitable and necessary'. The report was compiled at the request of the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. It includes an in depth analysis of four biometric technologies (face, fingerprint, iris and DNA), and concludes by identifying a number of issues that policymakers should address. According to the JRC's report, 'biometric-based identification will proliferate in society, extending from initial government use to civil and commercial applications, and [...] will have a profound impact on society.' The authors describe this government-led process of adoption as 'the diffusion effect'. They foresee that once the public become familiar with the use of biometric technologies at borders and in other dealings with public authorities, their use in commercial applications will follow. The introduction of biometrics poses a number of technological challenges, however, which the report says should be addressed in the near future if policy is to shape their use rather than react to it. Most importantly, the authors stress that there is a need to recognise the limitations of biometrics - that they constitute only one part of an effective overall identification or authentication process. There is a frank acknowledgement that the use of biometrics may challenge the existing model of trust between citizen and state, and as a result the report recommends that the purpose of each new application should be clearly defined so as to avoid what it terms 'function creep'. However, while it accepts that the widespread use of biometric technologies raises privacy-related fears among citizens, the report also cites their potential to enhance privacy by allowing authentication without necessarily revealing a person's identity. 'The more policy measures are able to encourage the use of biometrics to enhance privacy, the more biometrics will be acceptable to the public at large,' it states. A further recommendation relates to the conditions required for the emergence of a vibrant European biometrics industry. In particular, the report highlights the key role that governments must play in fostering a competitive supply market by acting as early adopters of the technology. In conclusion, the JRC study identifies several areas where further research and data are needed. Technical interoperability and a lack of widely accepted standards are key challenges that need to be addressed. More efforts are also needed to develop multimodal systems - those that combine more than one biometric identifier, for example face and fingerprint. Finally, the report argues that while the European Commission has already taken some steps in this direction, there is still a need to further harmonise Member State initiatives and encourage the exchange of best practices.