Biometrics Institute Stresses Importance of Ethical Best Practices for Biometrics

The Biometrics Institute is asking law enforcement, border control, and other government agencies to exhibit good behavior when deploying biometric technology, warning that it may be regulated for them if they use it irresponsibly and go on to lose public trust.

“It is vital that anyone using biometrics to identify individuals follows responsible and ethical guidelines to avoid people suffering from the consequences of the technology not being managed properly,” said Biometrics Institute Chief Executive Isabelle Moeller. 

The Institute’s warning is particularly timely given the debate around the facial recognition ban in San Francisco. Organizations like the IBIA have come out against the ban, but it nevertheless points to a growing fear that biometric technology operators and manufacturers like Amazon cannot be trusted to use their own technology responsibly.

By following ethical best practices, the Biometrics Institute is hoping that biometrics providers will mitigate that fear and avoid more restrictive legislation. The organization has spent the past few months trying to encourage better behavior, first by publishing a set of ethical guidelines and then a set of privacy guidelines that reflect Europe’s new GDPR standards.

As it stands, the Biometrics Institute argues that law enforcement agencies need to be more aware of public concerns, especially in the absence of official standards. If not, the landscape will be far more contentious once policy catches up to the technology.  

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May 29, 2019 – by Eric Weiss