Originally published PERSPECTIVE: “Secure Borders, Open Doors” Depend on Biometrics on by https://www.hstoday.us/featured/perspective-secure-borders-open-doors-depend-on-biometrics/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=perspective-secure-borders-open-doors-depend-on-biometrics at Homeland Security
Given President Trump’s endeavor to harden the country’s borders, it’s no wonder that the use of biometrics in border control – and discussion and debate around it – have reached a fever pitch. This April 11, for example, a new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rule begins that requires foreign nationals in the U.S. to submit an online registration and undergo fingerprinting.
Many civil and immigrant rights organizations have expressed concerns that the growing use of biometric technologies could pose risks to civil liberties, individual privacy, and democratic principles. These concerns deserve thoughtful consideration. At the same time, it’s important to recognize a fundamental truth: ensuring we know who is in our country is essential for maintaining national safety and security.
Concurrently, the U.S. must continue to ensure that access to our country is not impeded for international travelers. Our nation depends on the efficient, safe flow of individuals in and out of it. And as exhibited in one recent report from The U.S. Travel Association, the U.S. is preparing to welcome visitors from all over the world for a “mega-decade of events” and must take steps to improve America’s travel infrastructure while maintaining security.
“Secure Borders, Open Doors” is a phrase summarizing the goal of the federal government charged with interviewing, assessing, processing, analyzing, and welcoming hundreds of millions of international visitors while finding the small numbers of people – the “needles in the haystack” – who are intent on using our openness against us.
Biometrics are the ideal tool to achieve these seemingly dichotomous ends, for the following reasons:
- Biometrics beat biography: Biometrics reduce dependency on paper documents to prove identity. Biological traits such as face, voice, fingerprints, and irises are nearly impossible to steal or be used by an imposter. Passports and other documents, on the other hand, can be stolen, and also counterfeited. Case in point: Border Patrol recently sent out an alert about migrants from certain countries using fraudulent passports to illegally enter the United States.
- Biometrics support greater privacy: A fundamental tenant of privacy is that people only provide the information needed to be validated – nothing more, nothing less. Biometrics are a highly efficient way to prove identity, without intrusive interrogation or ID inspection which may also incite unnecessary fear and anxiety or expose additional (and unnecessary) information. Everyone has a right to privacy, but that shouldn’t be confused with the right to anonymity, which we shouldn’t and can’t always expect.
In addition, opponents of biometrics say that collecting a vast pool of biometric data presents a significant privacy risk. In other words, if a hacker were able to access such a database of biometric data, they could steal and wreak havoc with data that individuals cannot easily change (unlike a password, it’s impossible to change your fingerprints).
We believe these arguments are unfounded because there are a wealth of advanced techniques the government can use to ensure the utmost privacy of biometric data – for example, template encryption, where biometric data is stored as encrypted templates rather than raw images (so no one can “steal your face”). There’s also a technique known as temporary processing, where users are authenticated without permanently storing their biometric data, ensuring data is deleted immediately after use (TSA pre-check identity verification uses this tactic, for example).
- Biometrics Deliver Operational Efficiency: The Trump administration is laser-focused on efficiency, and rather than having to extensively question every person entering or existing in the U.S., biometric screening enables limited resources to spend their time on a “smaller stack of hay.” Biometrics enable border patrol and customs agents to make better decisions in real-time regarding who might require more vetting. It’s all about making sure the right person goes through the right process and making the most judicious use of resources. It’s enormously expensive and time-consuming to staff people to vet incoming travelers and immigrants, and biometrics are poised to deliver a windfall of savings.
- Biometrics are Non-Biased and Objective: Over the years biometric tech has carried the reputation for being biased; in other words, biometrics has been less capable of accurately identifying certain minorities and ethnicities. However, today’s tested and validated biometric algorithms have been trained on the most extensive data sets in the world and deliver near-perfect performance across an extremely wide range of individuals. In addition, without biometrics, we would still have to rely on human judgements of people’s physical characteristics – even though we know that humans are often far more subjective than technology. Biometrics are truly “equal opportunity,” and instead of profiling, you’re being given permission to speed up and expedite through a line.
- Biometrics are reaching mass adoption. The use of biometric identification as a border control mechanism is hardly new. It began in the months following 9/11 and has increased steadily ever since (for good reason) including under Democratic administrations. The American public – including those on both sides of the political aisle – overwhelmingly believe technologies like facial recognition can make our society safer.
Moreover, according to a recent survey, consumers are more used to biometrics than at any time in our history. Over half of those polled indicated they use biometric authentication technology regularly, with nearly 50 percent stating they use biometric authentication “often” or “always” to access mobile apps, indicating a clear path to mass adoption. Even if consumers have some trust concerns, the benefit of convenience often tends to outweigh them, with 62 percent of respondents noting they have never refrained from using biometric technology as a result of trust issues.
In summary, opponents of biometrics claim that this “techno-solutionism” applied at the border could easily be turned against Americans. But we don’t think so. People like to point out the flaws of biometrics. But it’s hard to argue that biometrics aren’t the most effective tool that Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) has in its arsenal to keep our country secure while simultaneously ensuring open doors and all the benefits that come with it.
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Originally published PERSPECTIVE: “Secure Borders, Open Doors” Depend on Biometrics on by https://www.hstoday.us/featured/perspective-secure-borders-open-doors-depend-on-biometrics/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=perspective-secure-borders-open-doors-depend-on-biometrics at Homeland Security
Originally published Homeland Security
