Ethics and Policy of Biometrics

The past decade has seen tremendous growth in the demand for biometrics and data security technologies in applications ranging from law enforcement and immigration control to online security. The benefits of biometrics technologies are apparent as they become important technologies for information security of governments, business enterprises, and individuals. At the same time, however, the use of biometrics has raised concerns as to issues of ethics, privacy, and the policy implications of its wi- spread use. The large-scale deployment of biometrics technologies in e-governance, e-security, and e-commerce has required that we launch an international dialogue on these issues, a dialogue that must involve key stakeholders and that must consider the legal, poli- cal, philosophical and cultural aspects of the deployment of biometrics technologies. The Third International Conference on Ethics and Policy of Biometrics and Inter- tional Data Sharing was highly successful in facilitating such interaction among - searchers, policymakers, consumers, and privacy groups. This conference was supported and funded as part of the RISE project in its ongoing effort to develop wide consensus and policy recommendations on ethical, medical, legal, social, cultural, and political concerns in the usage of biometrics and data security technologies. The - tential concerns over the deployment of biometrics systems can be jointly addressed by developing smart biometrics technologies and by developing policies for the - ployment of biometrics technologies that clearly demarcate conflicts of interest - tween stakeholders.