Understanding Biometric Identity
Author: John Published Under: Information Security
A persons identity is a very complex concept, but at its most basic, a persons identity can be broken down into three categories; attributed identity, biographical identity, and biometric identity. Of these three types of identity, biometric identity is the most concrete example of who a person is.
In todays world, most people use their identity on a daily basis. From proving you are of age to purchase alcoholic beverages to obtaining a home loan, identity is a powerful tool that helps verify we are who we say we are.
Biometric Identity is used to describe the physical characteristics of a person that make up a persons body. In this sense, biometric identity is the only truly physical type of identity and consists of things like a person's DNA or their fingerprint.
One of the key components of biometric identity is that it is unique for each individual. For instance, there could very well be 100 people named James Smith living in a city, but of all of these people, each one will have their own unique set of fingerprints.
As a result of the uniqueness of biometric identity, it has become a very popular way of identifying people. For example, the government uses fingerprints and DNA registries to keep track of criminals. Biometric Identity is also a popular tool for protecting technology and iris readers, which scan a persons eye, fingerprint readers, and even facial recognition software is becoming an increasingly common way of verifying that a person is who they say they are.
While at its most basic, each persons biometric identity is unique, or at least unique enough for practical purposes, the technology used to verify this identity still needs a great deal of work. For example, it is very easy to hack most fingerprint scanners, which are a common tool used to verify biometric identity.