Identifiable traits can be physical, such as hand contours or retina patterns.
They can be behavioral, such as voice modulation or keystroke typing rhythms. The smartcard and financial services industries are talking up biometrics as privacy's friend, and experts say biometric IDs are unmatched for security - you can't forge or, presumably, steal someone's body part. Come the millennium, we may be feeding pieces of ourselves into an ever-expanding array of computerized banking files, credit card registries, and state and federal databanks. Connecticut and Pennsylvania are two of several states that now use digitized finger imaging to match welfare records with recipients. Frequent travelers crossing into Canada from Montana can zip through an automated voice verification system run by the US Immigration and Naturalization Service.