The misgivings of the public are reinforced by recent publicized cases of loss of personal privacy, fraudulent funds transfers, and outright theft and abuse of identity in network transactions. Biometrics, an emerging set of technologies, promise an effective solution. Biometrics accurately identify or verify individuals based upon each person's unique physical or behavioral characteristics. Biometrics work by unobtrusively matching patterns of live individuals in real time against enrolled records. Leading examples are biometric technologies that recognize and authenticate faces, hands, fingers, signatures, irises, voices, and fingerprints.
Biometric data are separate and distinct from personal information.
Biometric templates cannot be reverse-engineered to recreate personal information and they cannot be stolen and used to access personal information. Precisely because of these inherent attributes, biometrics are effective means to secure privacy and deter identity theft.