The Introduction of the Biometric System - Essay Example

Biometric System The introduction of the Biometric system has taken new strides as we usher into the next decade. These cards are personal identity cards that provide for a personal identification tool, address proof and are linked to the National Identity Register in countries like the United Kingdom. Biometric technologies are defined as automated methods of identifying or authenticating the identity of a living person based on unique physiological or behavioural characteristics. When used in a well-designed system, such biometric technology can provide the means to ensure that an individual presenting a secure ID credential has the complete right to that ID credential. (Smart Card Alliance White Paper, 2002) Many Europeans countries have considered adopting this system to have a much more synchronised process of identification as well as the compilation of data with regard to the citizens of the countries. This paper shall discuss the pros and cons of the system and shall also throw light whether it infringes privacy of an individual.The Identity Cards Act 2006 was enacted in the state of England to bring out such procedure of enforcing unique identity identification system which shall have the details of the people residing in the country with regard to their private and public information. “As the move towards e-Government gathers pace in Europe, the impact of the digitalisation of many citizen-state interactions is beginning to challenge accepted wisdom on what digitalcitizenship consists of, what its risks are, and how they might be managed in the new digital era. In the evolving relationship between e-Government and the digital citizen, of growing importance is the role played by new identity management systems (IDMS) and the introduction of electronic ID cards.E-Government projects often involve large-scale sharing of data, much of it personal data about citizens, and increasingly these projects involve the personal identification and authentication of individual citizens as they use electronic public services.”(Lips, 2007, p. 38). These biometric cards have a great amount of use and the government introduced the same in order to cut down on the wastage of resources and to ensure national security. According to ministers, this card was introduced so that people would not have to have various other cards as per their identity proof and thus it would make identification for owning certain products, travelling around the country and abroad etc. better. Furthermore, it would help the government to easily keep a tab on each and every citizen residing within the country and the citizens would be able to use the social security services without misusing the same. After conducting various meetings and consultations regarding the introduction of such a system for the purpose of evaluation and tracking of every citizen within the country, the government decided to go ahead with the same because the main merit of working with this system in place would mean that the government has the ability to clearly and properly identify each and every person living within the country and thus have his records, which would further lead to a large bout of development as they would be able to understand the situation of different people better. The government also tried to keep a check on terrorist activities and thus provided that having such a system in place would really help to curb the same. In the United Kingdom, efforts were made and the majority passed the implementation of the bill for the introduction of biometric cards in the Parliament. However, there was a great amount of information leaked regarding the difficulty that the Parliament was facing regarding the issuing of these cards in terms of gathering all the information regarding the people, keeping the costs in check as well as ensuring the reliability of having such a system in place. The cost and the reliability factors became the two most important factors in terms of understanding this very system. The cost of having this system in place has been estimated to be around 12 to 18 billion pounds and the government has also been challenged on the basis of the reliability of this very scheme because in order to undertake this successfully, it would have to carry out research and find out information up to date about the people at least every five years. A new database linkage system would also have to be effectively placed within the purview of the government in order to carry out research work and save all the information regarding the biometrics of the people within the country. For the purpose of the ID card, photographs, proof of information as well as fingerprints would be required, which would further require more costs and take up a great amount of time. The government was sceptical about many people not providing their correct information and getting away with fake biometric passes for the purpose of unlawful or illegal activities. Further, it was also to be decided whether or not this card could be used in place of the passport that people already had, in order to at least travel within the country of Europe, because getting the same accepted by other nations would be yet another task. During a time of such high crisis with respect to crimes, no country would want to allow anything less than a universally acceptable proof of information regarding a person and thus these biometric cards proved to be unreliable in terms of the same. The main effect that this card would have brought about would be to reduce crime and terror and also give people ease of access as they would not have to use multiple ID cards for the purpose of registering for products or buying assets and creating bank accounts. However, according to critics, these cards have only helped to take further the process of crime because people have been issuing fake biometric cards which have led to a great amount of wastage of resources and destruction with respect to maintaining law and order within the country. There have been many human rights activists and groups that have challenged the use of these cards in terms of violating human privacy. According to Gordon Brown, these cards used in the United Kingdom should have had the capacity of being instantly notified to the police as they were swiped. As soon as a person entered a building via an iris scan door, these cards were to let the police know the whereabouts of the person. They would also have been used in order to share confidential information about a person to the police and have all that information stored in their database against the person’s will if such a situation was to arise. These cards would help to marginalise the weaker sections of society as well which would not be a boon for them. It would rusticate the gypsies, beggars and the other poorer sections of the people from the well off and make the government habituate them in a different part of the city or country altogether. Even though the government argued that these cards were required in order to remove identity theft, such a situation cannot be completely erased by having this system in place. It is important for any government, especially a democratic one, in order to ensure that its people are satisfied and happy. Every government can only do that by knowing and understanding the status of the people, which can further be done by collecting their information. However, activists argue that using these cards simply takes this entire exercise to a whole new level where each person’s information is available to the police who have a track on the whereabouts of every man roaming the country because of his card swiping activities. This was not taken well by the people because it hinders privacy issues and leads to petty problems which the police would have to further look into and solve. This would involve new rule making which would again be a tedious process. In conclusion, biometric cards have their merits and demerits as discussed within the scope of this paper. Despite being introduced in a number of European nations like northern Ireland, UK and Scotland, they have not proved to be a viable option for the people because of the kind of invasion and hindrance to a persons privacy that they have led to. Even though these cards promise to bring about social security, national security as well as law and order, it is not possible to carry out the same in a democratic nation by keeping a tab on the people by gaining access to all their information and personal lifestyle actions. Also, it takes a toll on the government to maintain the costs related to placing this system in the first place. Activists have questioned the reliability of having such a system and have ruled out the possibility of finding it as a feasible option for the people. Therefore having the system of biometric cards in a country is not really an effective option in terms of curbing crime and trying to maintain law and order and neither is this entire system going to be cost effective or completely reliable for the government.   REFERENCES Smart Card Alliance, May 2002. Retrieved from http://atmel.com/dyn/resources/prod_documents/Smart_Card_Biometric_paper%20May02.pdf Beck, A. and K. Broadhurst (1995) National Identity Cards in the European Union: The British Debate, Centre for the Study of Public Order, Leicester. "Identity Cards Act 2006 (c. 15)". Opsi.gov.uk. Retrieved 8 May 2010. Lips, A.M.B., (2007) ‘E-Government Under Construction: Challenging Traditional Conceptions of Citizenship’, in P. Nixon & V. Koutrakou(eds.), E-Government in Europe. Rebooting the State, Routledge, London, pp.33-47. Read More