The Israeli Minister of the Interior is pushing legislation to introduce biometr

Question

The Israeli Minister of the Interior is pushing legislation to introduce biometric IDs. On the one hand I hear his argument that it can help to prevent identity theft. On the other hand, something makes me very nervous about having my biometric "password" in the hands of any government. And I worry what will happen if a hacker somehow steals that "password", because I can't change my DNA and get a new password.

My discomfort is largely emotional, though, because I don't fully understand the real risks of biometric IDs.

Can anyone please explain clearly what the risks are, if any, with biometric systems?

Explanation / Answer

A few thoughts about that:

+ Biometric data is easy to access and should not be used as a password, only as additional authentication.
+ As Freedom explained quite well your government already tracks you.
+ Biometric data like fingerprints are mostly not stored as raw images but in form of hashes. An algorithm extracts certain characteristics. You cannot restore your fingerprint from this data. Still, it might be possible to trick some authentications with this data.
+ Biometric data could be misused. DNA markers could contain information about medical issues or ancestry. Currently forensic teams are trying to reconstruct how a person looks from their DNA.
+ Data that are not needed should not be stored. Especially not centralized.

I am against this because: Freedom before Fear.

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