Bolstering Biometric Data
Melissa Wingard · 2021
Sometimes surveyed individuals claim to care greatly about privacy but their actions rarely align with the concern expressed. This disconnect is referred to as the privacy paradox. The privacy paradox is explained by reference to individuals finding it difficult to assign a specific value to their information or identify their information as their own. COVID-19 has accelerated the use of biometric data in technology to provide contactless solutions and implement contact tracing to address the unprecedented public health challenge. Biometric data is inherently identifiable as it uses our physical or behavioural human characteristics such as our faces, eyes, gait, or fingerprints. As individuals these biometric features are us, we can&s;t easily obtain new features. Given COVID-19 is encouraging technology companies and governments to use biometric data, will this be the catalyst for individuals to align their actions to their concerns, and if they do they face the same ‘take it or leave it’ position we have experienced pre-COVID? Technology organisations that have historically benefited from individuals sharing their personal information in exchange for convenience may be faced with a backlash, as too many governments could use contact tracing to develop surveillance. Privacy laws have been written by legislators, applied by companies and administered by regulators. As the information being collected moves from information about us to information that is fundamentally the essence of our being, do the laws need to be updated to empower individuals to manage and control their biometric data?