Biometric identification faces real-world hurdles

By Dan Vergano

Biometric identification faces real-world hurdles

Television cop shows love "biometric" technologies, fingerprints, eye scans and so on, but a blue-ribbon panel report calls for caution on widespread use of biological identification. Released Friday by the National Research Council, the " Biometric Recognition: Challenges and Opportunities" report headed by Hewlett-Packard chief Joseph Pato concludes all biometric recognition technologies are "inherently fallible."

"A lot of things possible on a TV series just don't work that way in real life," says panel member Bob Blakley of researcher Gartner, in Stamford, Conn. "While there are lots of good uses for biometric recognition, there are lots of ways to create systems that waste time, cost too much and don't work very well.“Fingerprints are the best-known example of a biometric recognition marker — a physical trait that can serve to identify people reliably, such as facial features, voice, signature and even walk. "Biometric recognition has been applied to identification of criminals, patient tracking in medical informatics, and the personalization of social services, among other things," notes the report.

Federal agencies such as the FBI and Department of Homeland Security are funding research in improved biometric screening, but the report cautions they're not doing basic research into whether the physical characteristics involved are truly reliable or how they change with aging, disease, stress or other factors. None look stable across all situations, the report says. Deployment of biometric screening devices at airports (which is not currently planned), borders or elsewhere without understanding the biology or the population being screened may lead to long lines, false positives and missed opportunities to catch criminals or terrorists, suggests Blakley.

"No system is infallible, there is no silver bullet," says Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C. "We have to test our security strategies carefully, or there will be a lot of taxpayer money wasted on systems that disappoint us."Brandon Mayfield, a 44-year-old attorney from Oregon, is the poster example of the problem. A partial fingerprint from the 2004 Madrid subway bombing that killed 191 people was said by the FBI to match Mayfield's, which led to his arrest. A judge later found the fingerprint match was only a slight one and for the wrong finger, ordering Mayfield released. The FBI apologized for the arrest and Mayfield won $2 million in damages.

The FBI's nationwide fingerprint system has generally worked very well, leading to the arrest of fugitives, says the report. "But the key message is that even a very accurate technology can yield bad results if it is turned to the wrong problem," Blakley says, such as using time-consuming technologies to screen large numbers of people. For that reason, the report calls for open and independent testing of biometric screening technologies before they are placed into widespread use. Cultural factors such as how long people are willing to wait in line for screening, as much as raw accuracy, will determine whether a particular kind of biometric recognition system will work. "Too many false positives and guards will just stop believing in the system, and let the wrong people through," Blakely says.

DAN VERGANO

Dan Vergano joined USA TODAY as a medical and science reporter in 1999, covering health, science and environment. Previous reporting positions include Medical Tribune and HealthWeek (PBS), as well as freelance work for Air & Space Smithsonian, Science, New Scientist, Men's Health, the Washington Post and others. Dan worked as a space policy analyst and aerospace engineer prior to starting his reporting career.

He won the 2006 David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Journalism from the American Geophysical Union for a USA TODAY cover story on climate change. Dan was a 2007-08 Nieman Fellow at Harvard, where he concentrated on the intersection of science and politics. He has written a weekly online science column and has contributed to USA TODAY's "Science Fair" news blog since 2005.

ACTIVITIESType of text:

The text that we are presenting is an informational text, because the author is informing about the hurdles of the biometric identification technology, this information was given by experts that say that biometric identification is not as easy as the T.V. series show.

News category:The category of de article we presented is “technology”, due to the fact that the author is talking about the disadvantages of the biometric technology.

Use of writing style:The writing style that the author used on the text is an expository style, because he is exposing the obstacles that the biometrical identification technology has.

Punctuation rules:In this text like in almost all texts, the author uses to write colons, periods, commas, etc. but he used quotation marks many times because it is needed for this kind of writing styles.

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BIBLIOGRAPHYhttp://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/columnist/

vergano/2010-09-24-biometric-recognition_N.htm.http://opa.yale.edu/images/poynter/vergano-bio.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/11/technology/

11online.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/11/business/media/

11privacy.html?ref=technology