Report - Guardian

The LSE Identity Project Report: June 2005 171of application-dependent evaluations, their potential susceptibility todeception, the lack of standards, and questions of users’ acceptance. 427It also warns against making assumptions about the ability of the technology to performacross large populations:“The performance of facial, fingerprint, and iris recognition isunknown for systems as large as a biometric visa system…”There are two distinct problems that can result from failure to adequately register with abiometric device. The first is described as the Failure to Enrol Rate (FTER). Thisoccurs when a person’s biometric is either unrecognisable, or when it is not of asufficiently high standard for the machine to make a judgment. The second crucialindicator is the False Non-Match Rate (FNMR) that occurs when a subsequent readingdoes not properly match the properly enrolled biometric relating to that individual.The first problem would result in a person not being enrolled in an identity system. Thesecond can result in denial of access to services. While iris recognition appears toperform better than other biometrics in both these figures, there are still substantialproblems, and these are likely to disproportionately affect, for example, visuallydisabled people.The Government has been previously warned of all these problems. According toWritten Evidence submitted to the Home Affairs Committee from BT, these biometricsrequire further testing.“Fingerprint recognition is in use in a number of applications and is arelative success. Issues with fingerprint recognition include the highrate of false non-match results and social inclusion given that in thecurrent UK population approximately one in a thousand people areunable to provide the required four suitable fingerprints. Anotherpotential problem area is the public perception of the process of takingfingerprints and its link with the criminal justice process.Iris recognition is as yet unproven in large-scale biometricapplications. Issues include the physical size of the each individualdatum and for a population in excess of 50 million, the need for animage of both irises to ensure uniqueness. Around one in ten thousandpeople do not have a suitable iris for recognition.Facial recognition is not currently sufficiently reliable for theidentification of each member of the population and recent trials haveshown relatively poor identification performance.” 428427 U.S. General Accounting Office, Using Biometrics for Border Security, Washington D.C., November 2002http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03174.pdf.428 ‘Memorandum submitted by British Telecommunications plc’, submitted to the Select Committee on HomeAffairs, January 2004, available athttp://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmhaff/130/130we04.htm.