Like any new technology, biometrics is subject to privacy concerns—and since biometric data relates to a specific individual, the concerns are personal and sensitive. Fortunately, there are many ways to address these concerns; technology solutions can help, but good system design involving technology architects, business and privacy specialists, privacy advocates, and end users, and appropriate procedural, educational, and regulatory requirements, can protect privacy more effectively.
Given these complex privacy issues, what of the future? Will organizations’ processing biometric data be increasingly challenged to justify their use and handling of this information? Will privacy issues become more acute as biometrics systems become more widespread and the public becomes more aware? Or will citizens and consumers choose to accept the use of biometric data as an essential ingredient of modern life?
Accenture believes people are becoming increasingly comfortable with biometric technologies, just as they have adopted credit cards, mobile phones, ecommerce or, more recently, social media. We expect fewer irrational fears as biometrics become better-understood and supported by an improved framework of standardized, regulated ways to handle the privacy of biometric systems.