Pros and cons of biometrics in today's digital age:
By 2020, biometric authentication and verification will play a significant role in contemporary technology and be more pervasive than most current users realize. As we highlight in our blog post, the majority of people utilize biometric verification in some way every day, whether it is to unlock their phones to reply to notifications or to speed past lengthy security lines at airports and doctor's offices.
To unlock their services, today's most popular biometric gadgets and associated verification applications need physiological biometrics like voice, thumb, and face recognition. They are not, however, the only key. Along with a rising acceptance of behavioral biometrics, there are numerous more 'physical' uses for biometrics, such as iris or palm form. For instance, corporations and governments are increasingly creating biometric profiles of users to be used for identification and tracking purposes based on how people access and interact with websites, whether on a smartphone, laptop, or even the web browser they use.
While the usage of biometric data and authentication is expanding and being incorporated into all facets of contemporary life, concerns have been raised about the security and privacy of users and customers who provide biometric input to businesses and governments as well as the intended uses. Why is it necessary for a company to know what browser I use? What happens if my biometric information is stolen? A password can always be changed, but is it possible to change a fingerprint?
Biometric authentication refresher
Biometrics is the measurement and analysis of an individual’s physiological or behavioral traits (Biology + Metrics = Biometrics).
Three components are identified by experts as being necessary for multi-factor verification of a person's identification through technology: knowledge (something the user and only the user knows), possession (something the user and only the user has), and inherence (something the user and only the user are). When a device or service uses biometrics for identity verification, the goal is to confirm that a user is who they say they are by comparing their biometric input with the biometric data that has previously been stored—something a user is and has. Biometrics falls under the possession and inherence parameters.
Physiological and behavioral inputs are the two main types of biometrics. The fingerprints, hand geometry, face form, and eye pattern of a person are the primary physiological biometrics used in modern technology. A person's web browsing habits and internet cookies, IP addresses, voice recognition, or how they are likely to behave both online and in real life are the main behavioral biometrics. Physical and behavioral characteristics can be used as inputs to generate custom user profiles and be turned into data for later use.
Using database servers, physical tokens, or encrypted tokens, biometric data is saved and processed. More secure devices will store biometric templates locally (or on-premises), preventing sensitive biometric data from being transmitted over the internet to a different server or location so that identity authentication may take place.
Advantages of biometric authentication
Biometric authentication and its uses in modern-day tech and digital applications have a number of advantages:
High security and assurance – Biometric identification provides the answers to “something a person has and is” and helps verify identity
User Experience – Convenient and fast
Non-transferrable – Everyone has access to a unique set of biometrics
Spoof-proof – Biometrics is hard to fake or steal
High security and assurance
By confirming a measurable, physical characteristic as both something the user has and something the user is, biometrics give providers higher degrees of assurance that a person is real. Due to the likelihood that the majority of user passwords, PINs, and personal identification information have been exposed in a data breach, fraudsters who have access to traditional authentication methods can access billions of accounts. While fraudsters may be aware that a person uses their dog's name and a few lucky numbers for the majority of their online accounts, they are unable to use their fingerprint to unlock an account if they are unable to provide it immediately. This adds a barrier for fraudsters that only a real, authorized user can get around. A robot would currently have difficulty passing an iris scan since biometrics can only be provided by living, breathing human beings.
User experience is convenient and fast
Although the internal procedures for biometric authentication are technically complex, from the perspective of the user, they are quite simple and rapid. It takes less time to place a finger on a scanner to unlock an account than it does to type a lengthy password with numerous special characters. Additionally, most users frequently make the error of forgetting their passwords. What are the chances that you may forget your own biometrics? Never!
Non-transferable
Biometric authentication demands the presence of its input during authorization. The only way to use the majority of biometric authentication systems is with a physical application; you cannot transfer or exchange a physical biometric online.
Almost foolproof
It is nearly hard to recreate biometrics like face patterns, fingerprints, iris scanning, and others using the technologies available today. Your fingerprint will not perfectly match someone else's by chance of one in 64 billion[1]. To put it another way, you have a better chance of winning the lottery than a hacker trying to access your biometrically protected account if you have the same fingerprint.
Disadvantages of biometric authentication
Despite increased security, efficiency, and convenience, biometric authentication and its uses in modern-day tech and digital applications also have disadvantages:
Costs – Significant investment needed in biometrics for security
Data breaches – Biometric databases can still be hacked
Tracking and data – Biometric devices like facial recognition systems can limit privacy for users
Bias – Machine learning and algorithms must be very advanced to minimize biometric demographic bias
False positives and inaccuracy – False rejects and false accepts can still occur preventing select users from accessing systems
Costs
It should come as no surprise that installing a more sophisticated security system would involve large financial outlays. According to a Spiceworks poll from 2018, "the top reason for not using biometric authentication" is cost, which is cited by 67% of IT experts. A corporation would not only have to pay for the transition to biometric authentication; according to the poll, 47% of respondents, their current systems would also need to be upgraded in order to enable the switch to biometric authentication on their devices.
Data breaches
Hackers frequently target companies and governments that collect and store users' personal data. In order to keep ahead of fraud developments, enterprises must treat sensitive biometric data with more security and vigilance because it is irreplaceable. This is costly and technically challenging. A password or pin can always be changed if it has been compromised. The same cannot be true for a person's biometrics, either physiological or behavioral.
Tracking and data
The privacy of users must be taken into account as the globe increasingly uses biometric authentication systems like facial recognition technology and other biometric security measures. A user stands the danger of leaving a permanent digital trace that could be followed by malicious actors when biometrics are transformed into data and kept, especially in locations or nations with extensive surveillance measures. Governments and corporations have frequently utilized facial recognition technologies to follow and identify people with unnerving accuracy, severely compromising privacy. Biometric information can become a permanent digital tag that can be used to monitor someone, both knowingly and unknowingly, as surveillance levels rise.
Bias
It can be difficult for providers to minimize demographic bias in biometrics while still confirming applicants' identities during digital onboarding. Technology misuse or improper use on purpose can lead to exclusion and discrimination. Cross-demographic performance can be unpredictable and restrict customer access to necessities like finance and the rising spectrum of digital services without a tested, document-centric identity validation solution.
False positives and inaccuracy
The majority of popular biometric authentication techniques rely on insufficient data to confirm a user's identity. For instance, during the enrollment step, a mobile biometric device will scan a whole fingerprint and turn it into data. Future fingerprint biometric authentication, however, will only require a portion of the print to confirm identity, making the process speedier overall. By comparing similarities between partial prints and complete biometric data, a research team from New York University 2018 developed an artificial intelligence platform that was able to successfully hack fingerprint authentication at a success rate of 20%.