Chapter 38: Written on the Body: Biometrics and Identity By Irma van der Ploeg
April 14, 2009
Chapter 38: Written on the Body:
Biometrics and Identity
By Irma van der Ploeg
Book: Cyberethics
Library Reference: Not Applicable
Quote:
“Biometrics is not just about as narrow an identity check as some authors maintain”
We thought that biometrics is very small and narrow, but actually biometrics is very large. There are many dependencies in which biometrics depend.
Learning Expectation:
I expect to know more about biometrics and identity. Also, I want to know the sides of Irma van der Ploeg regarding this issue. In addition to that, I want to know if biometrics is ethical and if there are disadvantages.
Review:
Biometrics are a finger print system that would store your fingerprint in order for identity. The process is so simple. First, you will touch the device, then your finger would be validated if you are the right person who can access that information. Finger print is not only the examples of biometrics, but there is still eye reader that would see if you are that person. This is very effective since it is said that each person has different thumb print.
So the question is when does the Biometrics used? This is used in companies wherein not all people should be given access. This is a solution for security measure. Also, some companies would have biometrics in order to track down the attendance of their workers. This is very helpful since you could monitor who attended the seminar and what time he got out from that work.
I can say that some of the examples of biometrics are not effective. One of the examples that are not effective are the token based identification scheme. What other workers would do is to have that thing and scan it in the device even though that person is not physically present in that building. I think there is no used for that token based identification scheme because some employees find a way in order to make it ineffective and inefficient.
Major buyers of the biometrics are businesses since they are really using its advantage in order to achieve their goal and to monitor what their workers are doing.
What I’ve learned:
I learned that some of the biometrics are useless, but some I believed is effective device. It really depends on the person characteristics, if he would not be ethical or not. The more chapters I learned, I realized that it is not the term such as privacy that would be the problem. I believed that it is the person who would take that privacy for himself. Education is really needed in order for them to be ethical in their journey in life.
Integrative questions:
1) What is a biometric?
2) What are the examples of biometrics?
3) What are the disadvantage of having biometrics?
4) What are some problems regarding biometrics?
5) Is Biometrics effective or ineffective? Why?
