An HS Daily Wire conversation with Walter Hamilton of the International Biometrics Industry Association (IBIA)
transactions and then use this information to deny benefits or privileges. There are some biometric technologies that can be used from a distance, without knowledge or consent of the individual. For example, there is research going on into the use of a biometric measurement of the walking gait, for identifying a person from a hidden vantage.
DW: No pun intended, but we have read that ears are very good earmarks.
Hamilton: The shape of the earlobe is considered a candidate biometric technology. However, I would classify ear shape today as a “novel” biometric still in research mode and not something that is in production use. There are even more novel biometric technology candidates. Human body odor may exhibit some unique measurable chemical characteristic. But, in the mainstream, fingerprint technology is still number one. It’s inexpensive, highly developed, and extraordinarily easy to use. Yes, it has its limitations. But it has the versatility to be used for answering that one-to-one question, “Are you who you say you are?” — as well as that one-to-many question, “Who are you?”
Fingerprint technology has a long history in the law enforcement field for investigative purposes and is now seeing service in border security, transportation security, airport security, and many other applications. For example, the United States is now using fingerprints to check all foreign visitors coming into the country through our ports of entry, or when they apply for a visa at a consulate. They have to submit all ten fingerprints. This is a fairly recent expansion of the program called US-VISIT, which is managed by the Department of Homeland Security. The system used to be based on just the two index fingers. But the database of foreign visitor records has grown so large, the decision was made to go to ten fingerprints to ensure higher matching accuracy and to facilitate data exchange with other law enforcement systems, such as the FBI.
The United States also has programs that allow frequent flyers who have submitted information about themselves for a background check, to be cleared to carry a card that gets them through security faster. When you present your “Registered Traveler” card at the airport, the system performs a one-to-one match of your fingerprint or iris to prove that you are the person to whom the card was originally issued.
DW: To what extent are such programs, which may have a suggestion of privilege about them, be held back
