{"id":456,"date":"2011-01-24T16:53:11","date_gmt":"2011-01-24T21:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.m2sys.com\/blog\/?p=456"},"modified":"2022-09-26T08:46:06","modified_gmt":"2022-09-26T12:46:06","slug":"biometrics-privacy-and-identity-theft-what-are-you-risking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.m2sys.com\/blog\/biometric-technology\/biometrics-privacy-and-identity-theft-what-are-you-risking\/","title":{"rendered":"Biometrics, Privacy and Identity Theft \u2013 What Are You Risking?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is Biometric Technology Synonymous With A Violation Of Privacy?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Privacy\"<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

In certain circles, it\u2019s virtually impossible to mention the words \u201cbiometric identification\u201d without also having a spirited discussion about how using biometric technology purportedly is a direct violation of an individual\u2019s right to privacy.\u00a0 The issue regarding biometrics and privacy is if someone enrolls in a biometric identification system (referred to as a \u201cbiometric template\u201d), they are providing an image of their fingerprint, finger vein, palm vein, iris pattern or other physiological characteristic which is stored on a server or a computer.\u00a0 As a result, the following two fears are the most common about what could happen to the stored \u201cimage\u201d:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Identity Theft – It can be stolen by a computer hacker and used to steal someone\u2019s identity similar to if someone were to steal your social security number<\/li>\n
  2. Government Database \u2013 Your biometric template can and will be used by the federal, state or local government to create a national registry of all citizens<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The Truth About How Biometrics Really Works<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

    The truth of the matter is that biometric identity enrollment templates stored on a server or computers are not actually images at all.\u00a0 They are a mathematical representation of the data points that a biometric algorithm extracts from the scanned fingerprint<\/a><\/strong>, finger vein<\/a><\/strong>, palm vein<\/a><\/strong> or iris<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0 The identity template is simply a binary data file, a series of zeros and ones. \u00a0The algorithm then uses the template to positively identify an individual during subsequent fingerprint scans.\u00a0 No image is ever stored or transmitted across a network.\u00a0 In addition, the algorithm is \u201cone way\u201d which means that the template that is extracted is nearly impossible to be used to recreate the original biometric image.\u00a0 In other words, it is nearly impossible to reverse engineer the data that is sent to positively identify an individual and successfully \u201csteal\u201d their biometric identity.<\/p>\n

    At M2SYS, we employ several important security features to ensure that the privacy of those using our Hybrid Biometric Platform<\/a><\/strong> system is fully protected:<\/p>\n

    \u2022 No images are ever stored<\/p>\n

    \u2022 Biometric data is stored in a proprietary format unique to the algorithm used in Hybrid Biometric Platform<\/p>\n

    \u2022 All biometric data is stored using the AES 128 bit encryption algorithm<\/p>\n

    Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)<\/a><\/strong>, also known as Rijndael, is a block cipher adopted as an encryption standard by the U.S. government. \u00a0It is used worldwide and has been analyzed extensively, as was the case with its predecessor, the Data Encryption Standard (DES).\u00a0 AES was adopted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)<\/a><\/strong> as U.S. FIPS PUB 197 in November 2001 after a 5-year standardization process.<\/p>\n