Biometrics blogs


I occasionally delve into biometrics issues, but these people do it more often:



From the Ontario Empoblog

Comments

Ontario Emperor said…
For those who aren't familiar with the term, see this:

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Easy to use, impossible to lose!

In the simplest definition, biometrics is the idea of using human characteristics as identification.

Every person is unique. The way you walk, the way you look, the way you write your name are all ways of distinguishing you as an individual. Essentially, we all carry our identification with us at all times. It’s us. It was inevitable to convert those characteristics into something that may prevent your identity from being stolen. Or even having your home broken into.

How can your physical features prevent theft?

We were born with our fingerprints. It’s just not something you can change. And no one else can take them. That’s the beauty of biometrics. You weren’t born with a driver’s license, or a pin code (but if you were, we would like rights to your story!). Those can be taken, borrowed, stolen - you name it.

The same goes for your signature. If you can remember back when you were a kid and forged your parent’s signature on the report card…. You got caught. Didn’t you?

Or even if you didn’t, you sure did sweat it out thinking you would because it wasn’t exactly like the original. If your teacher had used a biometric signature capture device to decipher the handwriting instead of her own eye, she would have caught it.

The identification has always been there. It’s just taken this long to find the technology that would retrieve it....

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Note that the "every person is unique" is a big assumption (and, to some, an unproven assumption) (and, in some cases such as DNA, untrue).
Wednesday, August 31, 2005 1:10:00 PM
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