Educate Customers to Ease Privacy Concerns
Beyond the regular course of selling a customer on the advantages of biometrics solutions, installing companies will now and again have to contend with misperceptions surrounding these devices. Namely, privacy concerns.
In some cases, end-user companies that put biometrics into operation will at first receive resistance from employees who are concerned their personal information could be compromised.
Installing security contractors and manufacturers all need to work harder to inform the public that one-to-one biometrics do not heighten the threat of privacy breaches. The remedy here is education. Employees need to clearly understand the difference between identification, a one-to-many match; and verification, a one-to-one match.
A system designed to identify a person compares a biometric presented by an individual against all biometric samples stored in the database. The one-to-many system identifies the individual if the presented biometric matches one of the many samples on file. This type of system, for instance, is used by police departments to identify criminals.
The verification process, however, involves a one-to-one search. A live biometric presented by the user is compared to a stored sample, previously given by that individual during enrollment, and the match is confirmed. However, the actual hand geometry, vein pattern or fingerprint is not stored in a database.
Instead a mathematical equation, or algorithm, creates a unique number that represents the points measured on the finger, veins or hand. The number, or template, that results from this equation is all that is stored. Even if a system is hacked into, the only data a perpetrator will obtain is a meaningless string of 1s and 0s.
When the user presents an ID card or enters an assigned PIN, only that template is transmitted. When the employee presents their hand or finger, the reader runs the authentication process to determine if the template that is stored matches the template of the biometric being presented. If there is a match, the person is verified.
Dealers/integrators should also teach their customers that not only will biometrics provide them with increased security in the workplace, it can even improve record-keeping for payroll. Additionally, for those customers utilizing smart cards, let them know the template data can be stored on employee cards, thereby keeping control of its use in their own hands.