Biometrics use is fuelling privacy concerns

Significance

Data such as DNA, blood and saliva may also be used, typically in medical and legal settings. While the use of such identification increases, concerns about abuses of the most personal data about an individual are rising proportionately.

Impacts

• The pandemic boosted demand for contactless systems such as retina scanning, voice recognition and fingerprinting; this demand will rise.
• AI-driven face morphing -- amalgamating several people's images into one for fraudulent purposes -- is an increasing threat.
• Biometric identification for predictive uses, such as preventative policing or anti-terrorism, will particularly test democracies.