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Biometrics and Privacy from S.F. Chronicle



http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/ article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/
02/21/BU83203.DTL

Your Body is Your Password 
Biometrics Is the Key   

Benny Evangelista,
Chronicle Staff Writer 		Monday, February 21, 2000  					
							
Michael Sherwood turned to biometrics because he and his staff were
drowning in a sea of forgotten passwords.  ``It was a pain,'' said
Sherwood, computer systems director for the San Diego County city of
Oceanside. ``We were getting called out at 1 in the morning to reset a
password.''  But since last year, the 1,200 city employees have been
logging on to the computer network using something they can't forget --
their fingers.  In the process, those employees have become a living
demonstration of how a new generation of biometric devices --
computer-powered gizmos that recognize a person's unique physical
characteristics like fingerprints, face, eyes, hand or voice patterns --
are slowly creeping into the business and consumer worlds. The growing
use of computers to store personal information and for electronic
commerce is increasing the need for tighter security measures.

 Recent hacker attacks have highlighted how computer codes and personal
identification numbers are easily hijacked.  That's ignited a race among
companies to keep data safe, and makers of biometrics products believe
they have the perfect solution.  Computer-makers like Compaq plan to
ship laptops equipped with the same type of thumb-size fingerprint
reading device that has cut 75 percent of forgotten-password calls to
Sherwood's department, which would get as many as 100 such calls a day. 


Similar fingerprint-recognition devices are also available for Palm
Pilot organizers, and even Walt Disney World is using them to identify
season pass holders.  Banks, casinos and grocery stores are installing
special ATMs that recognize customers by scanning their faces or the
iris of their eyes. Government border agents in several countries are
employing face- or hand-scanning technology, while Alaska Airlines is
testing whether automated face recognition will speed passenger
boarding.  There are even new high-tech pens that recognize a person's
signature, and software that clocks people in to work using the
employee's unique hand dimensions. The new Microsoft Windows 2000
operating system released last week was designed to support biometric
devices.  Currently, the commercial use of biometric technology is still
limited. The overall market for biometrics was about $325 million in
1999, according to the research firm International Data Corp. But $300
million of that was by government agencies, usually for criminal
identification, and the rest came from the private sector.  ``In the
corporate space, (biometrics) is relatively immature,'' said IDC analyst
Chris Christiansen. But, he added, ``We could see that market easily
doubling in the next few years.''  Biometric proponents say it's
virtually impossible to counterfeit an eye, face, voice or handprint. 

``I'm starting to see biometrics coming in with high-end laptops and
keyboards,'' Christiansen said. ``In two or three years, it will be in
handheld computers, mobile devices and cellular devices simply because
there's so much personal information stored and corporate intellectual
property to protect.''  Christiansen believes fingerprint recognition
may have an early leg up because major companies like Motorola, Nokia,
Sony and NEC are moving quickly to grab a piece of the market.  ``The
buzz on fingerprint is better, not because fingerprint is a better
technology than face, but fingerprint has got a greater degree of
momentum,'' Christiansen said.  Sherwood said the fingerprint readers
that Oceanside installed for city workers cut down on the number of
passwords they had to remember. The employees had as many as nine
passwords or codes to access different levels of the city's computer
system, in addition to their own personal banking account PINs and
Internet service passwords.  Now, the workers log in by placing their
finger on a $99 print reader that plugs into each computer, although
some still have to enter codes to access top-secret data, such as
financial records or criminal information.  The inch-long, 3/4-inch wide
reader uses a silicon chip made by Motorola Corp. and software made by
Identix Corp. of Sunnyvale. Both companies believe the biometric market
can expand to $1 billion a year by the end of 2001, especially as more
transactions are done over the Internet and with wireless devices like
cell phones and personal data assistants.  But Jim Wayman, director of
the National Biometric Test Center at San Jose State University, said
he's not quite ready to believe the hype, since he's heard proclamations
that ``This is the year of biometrics'' every year since 1994.  He noted
that so far there has been little profit for about two dozen companies
worldwide working on various biometric products, including devices that
detect the vein patterns on the back of a hand, the way a person walks
or someone's body odor. Many of the companies ``come and go so quickly
it's hard to keep track of them,'' he said.  Yet he does believe the
commercial biometrics market will take off as companies find more uses
for the products. Although proponents of each technology tout theirs as
superior to the others, Wayman said the question of which is best
depends on how they are used.  Fingerprint technology, for example, is
cheaper, but isn't practical for high-traffic areas where the devices
tend to get smudged, he said. Iris scanning would work for those areas,
but the $4,000 to $20,000 cost per scanner will scare off potential
buyers, he said.  Biometrics makes Alabama resident Scott McDonald
nervous for another reason -- all the personal information computers can
glean and store from faces, fingers and voices.  McDonald has started a
Web site called ``Fight the Fingerprint'' to muster opposition to ``all
government sanctioned biometrics and Social Security identification
schemes.''  ``The whole Big Brother aspect comes into play whenever so
much information is available about you someplace,'' McDonald said. ``In
a free society, we should be able to engage in commerce unless and until
we do something wrong.''