Exploring the Ethical Dimensions of Biometric Technology in AI

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BIOMETRIC
TECHNOLOGY
AND ITS ETHICAL ISSUES & CONCERNS

WHAT IS BIOMETRIC TECHNOLOGY ?
Measurement and analysis of unique behavioural and physical characteristics in
people.
The physiological characteristics can be captured in the form of fingerprint, retina,
palm veins, face recognition, palm print, DNA etc.
Examples of advanced behavioural biometrics include tone of voice, gait,
typing/writing speed etc.
The biometric authentication process is used mainly for identification process and
access control.

PHYSICAL BIOMETRICS
The physical features of the body which are unique for every
person.
Fingerprints: The ridges and minutiae make up the finger skin
and are composed of loops, arches, whorls which make them
unique. Face: Each person has a different facial shape and features.
The relative position of the nose, eyes, mouth etc along with
special features on the face are captured.
Voice: The tone, quality, pitch of every individual is unique and
the devices use these properties of sound to differentiate among
the voice of individuals.
Iris: Identical twins who might even have the same face and
voice cannot have the same iris pattern and thus this level of
security is one of the strongest.

BEHAVIOURAL BIOMETRICS
Measurable patterns in human activities.
The speed of typing, style of writing, keystroke dynamics etc. may be captured for
further analysis.
Unlike physical biometrics, behavioural biometrics are captured over a time rather
than a single authentication process. (FindBiometrics,2019)
The behavioural patterns may be monitored over a period of time and this is called
continuous authentication.

DRIVING GROWTH OF BIOMETRICS
Biometrics have gained a lot of popularity in the
past few years and the factors for this growth are:
● Governments making efforts to capture and
maintain biometric identities of citizens.
● Firms producing biometric identification
devices to provide better levels of security at
workplaces which may also be used for other
purposes such as attendance management
systems. (Sites.google.com, 2019)
● Growth of biometric security on mobile
devices.

APPLICATIONS
Increasingly popular in public security systems and for keeping track of a
particular group of people.
Also used in personal devices such as phones, laptops and for online banking.
Used to maintain public records such as government IDs and criminal records.
Voice recognition may be used in electronic devices where authentication control
is needed.

How do these biometrics work ?
Devices acquire biometric sample of
individuals and extract features from
them.
The input is then matched from those
features and decision is taken.
In a fingerprint scanner, the ridges and
valleys on the finger are captured and
converted to binary numbers.
An image of scanned fingerprint is never
saved, only the binary numbers.
These binary numbers cannot be
converted back to images. (Witten, 2019)

ADVANTAGES OF USING BIOMETRICS
Highly reliable and capable of recognizing and identifying individuals and thus
used for security purposes where a higher level of authentication is needed.
Unlike passwords, unique physical or behavioural features cannot be stolen and
used.
Provides accurate results in the fields of forensic science, criminal identification
and other such fields of work.
Passwords and PINs can be forgotten whereas you don’t need to remember a thing
for your biometric scan and authentication.

ISSUES WITH BIOMETRICS
With so many advantages and applications, biometrics also have some downsides
which must not be ignored.
ERROR RATE
Not all the machines are prefect and they can make errors. Mainly they produce
two types of errors, False Acceptance Rate (FAR) and False Rejection Rate (FRR).
COST
Although the large scale usage has bought the costs down but still they are
costlier than the conventional security systems. The scanning equipment,
softwares, programmers, servers to manage biometric data all combined cost a lot
of money.

ISSUES WITH BIOMETRICS (contd.)
CANNOT BE CHANGED IF COMPROMISED
Unlike passwords or pins which can be changed, biometric identifiers cannot be
changed in case unexpected activity is being detected.
PERFORMANCE
Biometric scanners take time and if the equipments are not maintained properly
they may cause excessive delay and produce more errors than usual.
Other issues include device vulnerability, spoofing fingerprints, tricking iris
scanners and a few others.

ETHICAL ISSUES WITH BIOMETRICS
There are also some serious ethical issues with the use of biometric technologies.
● Personal privacy
● Protection of biometric data
Civil liberty organization argues that this technology violates the freedom of
anonymity and rights for privacy.
The technology can be spoofed and thus it is not the only solution.

ETHICAL ISSUES WITH BIOMETRICS (contd.)
Piracy interests in biometric data creates dilemma of objectifying human body.
Violation of Kant’s humanity principle.
Use of biometrics can lead to social exclusion.
Multiple cases reported where questions have been raised on how ethical these
systems are. Google, Microsoft and IBM all have faced issues regarding the same.