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Biometric Identification Technologies : Ethical Implications of the Informatization of the Body
... Ultimately, there are immediate implications for human dignity, which requires that individuals are not treated as mere objects. FRTs produce an "informatization of the body" (Van Der Ploeg, 2005), whereby body parts are objectivised and become direct sources of digital information for automated external controls to which the person is subjected. ...
... • La ética relativa a la "informatización del cuerpo" [69]. ...
... Linked to a host of other personal data kept in files that can be accessed from many places besides the border, it is hoped that this securitisation of borders will increase control over migration and combat terrorism, while at the same time facilitating low-risk border traffic. The freedom of increased international mobility for parts of the population thus goes hand in hand with citizens becoming better known and more transparent to authorities than ever before [27]. ...
This article deals with the ethical considerations raised by the collection, storage and use of biometric data. Comparisons
are drawn with human genetic databases. It will be shown that besides ethical assessment of new technologies, it is also interesting
to see how the advancement of these technologies has posed challenges to existing ethical frameworks, putting collective values
and public interests above individual rights. The comparison of biometric databases with medical research oriented genetic
databases shows that public interest may be differently constructed: while genetic databases projects create a discourse of
hope, biometric databases are surrounded by a discourse of threat. What both have in common is the imbalanced discussion of
benefits and risks. The lack of knowledge and understanding of possible benefits and drawbacks of new technologies makes it
difficult to build and maintain authentic public trust, which is of crucial importance for good ethical governance of databases.
Keywordsbiometrics-ethics-genetic database-biobank-informed consent-security-privacy-governance-trust-discourse of hope-discourse of threat
This chapter considers how surveillance modalities affect privacy. The modalities include government sanctioned CCTV or social networks, each of which create tensions and concerns between the data subject-citizen and the data processor.
https://phaidrabg.bg.ac.rs/open/o:16508
Identity and evidence of identity in the form of identification documents, passwords, and codes are key features of the information age and identity infrastructures which are essential in delivering public services and in executing border-control measures. Although increasingly sophisticated, such infrastructures and digital identities are vulnerable to exploitation. Identity theft, offline as well as online, is a key concern for all law enforcement. Fraudulent use of passports from the European Union (EU) is prevalent and has been rather constant over the past few years despite enhanced security mechanisms in EU passports. In response, a harmonized EU-wide e-passport is currently under development, aimed at enhancing the security of identification processes and at stifling identity theft. In this paper, an assessment is undertaken, investigating ethical implications of the novel EU passport regime and how different stakeholders may be affected. It is argued that assessments should include the effects on third country nationals and not only on EU members.
The ability to identify any patient and match them to the correct care pathway and healthcare professional should represent an absolute right for any individual; however, the potential for misidentification is an ever-present risk, especially in the incapacitated or unconscious patient. The technological ‘know how’ to identify individuals is electronically advanced in the security sector, but as yet undeveloped in healthcare, despite the growth and widespread adoption of electronic health care systems. It is a certain prediction that with the accelerating development of health informatics in hospitals, biometric identification will have to become embedded within our clinical information systems. The progression of both patient and staff ‘tagging’ and identification, is inevitable.
In 1999, the Institute of Medicine estimated that between 44,000 and 98,000 deaths per year were attributable to avoidable inaccurate patient identification [1]. A decade later, patient misidentification is still a major problem, which could be minimized by replacing the ‘human’ contribution of identification with a technological approach [2]. Biometric technologies have evolved rapidly, largely in conjunction with security informatics, as a way of combating identity theft and access control. There has been only limited penetration into the heath technology arena and one reason for this is the relative ignorance of biometric systems by healthcare professionals [3].
Västvärldens åldrande befolkning anses ofta ställa krav på nya former av vård och omsorg. Olika typer av informations- och kommunikationstekniskt (IKT) baserat vårdstöd framhålls ofta som en lösning. Tekniken medger en rad olika fördelar, exempelvis tätare tillsyn, kontinuerliga mätningar av vitala funktioner, med möjlighet att kontinuerligt ställa diagnos, och snabb respons på larm, men de tekniska lösningarna får också etiska implikationer. I den här artikeln beskrivs och exemplifieras IKT-baserad vård och omsorg och teknikens påverkan på centrala värden som personlig integritet, autonomi, frivillighet och informerat samtycke diskuteras. Interaktiv etisk teknikvärdering föreslås för att bättre inkorporera alla berörda parters behov av och synpunkter på den här typen av vårdstöd.
Nyckelord: autonomi, etik, frivillighet, informerat samtycke, interaktiv etisk teknikvärdering, IKT-baserat vårdstöd, hemvård, personlig integritet, robotteknik, sensorteknik, säkerhet, trygghet, valfrihet
English summary: When health care moves in – the ethics of mobile health care
An ageing population in the Western world is typically taken to require novel forms of health care. Different types of Information and Communication (ICT) based services and functions are presented as a solution. Even if such technology imply benefits in terms of more frequent attendance, continuous monitoring and diagnoses of vital signs and quick response to alarms, the technology also gives raise to ethical concerns. This article describes and exemplifies ICT-based health care and discusses implications on central values like privacy, autonomy, freedom of choice and informed consent. Interactive ethical technology assessment is suggested as a means to better incorporate the needs of all concerned parties and their perspectives on this type of support.
In this article, Peter Neyroud, Chief Executive of the NPIA, and Emma Disley, DPhil student at the Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford, argue that factual questions about the effectiveness of new technologies (such as DNA evidence, mobile identification technologies and computer databases) in detecting and preventing crime should not, and cannot, be separated from ethical and social questions surrounding the impact which these technologies might have upon civil liberties. This is due to the close interrelationship between the effectiveness of the police and public perceptions of police legitimacy-which may potentially be damaged if new technologies are not deployed carefully. The authors argue that strong, transparent management and oversight of these technologies are essential, and suggest some factors to which a regime of governance should attend.
Biometric technologies enable automatic identification of people based on their biological characteristics and behavior. Fingerprinting, face recognition and iris scanning, are recognized as the most popular. Less frequently in use are hand geometry, retina, signature, voice, vein, gait, smell, ear structure, etc. Biometric data are particular sensitive and may be compromised during the process of collection, processing, data retention and comparisons, so the public has ambivalent attitudes towards the use of these technologies.
The purpose of this research is to reach students’ attitude towards biometric identification in access control. The data were collected by PRISE Questionnaire on Security technology and privacy, part on biometric identification in December 2011. Sample was consisted from the students of University of Belgrade (N=269), the faculties where they study criminal law and criminology (Faculty of Special Education and Rehabilitation, Law Faculty and Academy of Criminalistics and Police Studies). Results of the research suggests that mostly students are positively oriented towards biometrics identification (81%). They mostly agree with the use of biometric identification at borders (67,7%), airports (58,4%) and banks (50,6%). The most acceptable biometric identification techniques are fingerprinting (66,5%), face recognition (29,6%), iris scanning (26%). There are some differences among students from different faculties. Law Faculty students are more negative oriented towards biometric passports then students from the other two faculties (F(2,266)=3,861; p<0,05).
Results are interpreted considering similar world research results and in the context of the education of future professionals who will making decision about the implementation of biometric identification.
This report to the Legal Issues Working of the National Commission on the Future of DNA Evidence examines selected legal issues that arise when DNA is employed in criminal investigations and trials. Part I considers the constitutionality of compelling suspects to submit to DNA sampling and of acquiring stored samples of a suspect’s DNA or medical records relating to these samples from private medical providers or laboratories. It also considers the constitutionality of gathering DNA from large numbers of people to see whether any have genotypes that match those seen in the trace evidence. It shows that although the Fourth Amendment usually requires the police to have probable cause and a warrant to compel a person to provide a DNA sample, there are many situations in which police may be able to secure DNA samples without these safeguards. Part I also considers a second investigative use of DNA — deducing physical or other characteristics of an individual whose DNA is found at the scene of crime. Genetic typing will permit inferences as to ancestry, physiognomy, or inherited disorders. Part I concludes that investigators can use genetic data to make valid inferences without infringing any constitutional rights. Part II discusses the admissibility of new DNA tests and the results of proficiency tests at particular laboratories. It suggests that the rules of character evidence create a largely unrecognized, and probably undesirable, obstacle to admissibility. It also considers suggestions that the durability of DNA evidence justifies extending the statute of limitations for prosecutions for certain crimes. Here, we counsel caution and careful weighing of the competing considerations before any legislative action is taken to extend the period of criminal responsibility. Part III explores constitutional and ethical questions that must be confronted in establishing and operating DNA databases for law enforcement purposes. It also indicates the array of policy choices that must be made in developing these systems — from the determination of which individuals are subject to having their genotypes placed in the databank, to the specification of how the DNA samples are obtained, to the decision as to how long the samples should be retained, and to the enumeration and definition of the uses to which the information may be put.
Configurations 3.3 (1995) 444-446
Nelly Oudshoorn, Beyond the Natural Body: An Archeology of Sex Hormones. London: Routledge, 1994. 195 pp. $16.95
Beyond the Natural Body delineates the scientific and sociocultural forces that brought sex endocrinology into being in the 1920s and 1930s. Nelly Oudshoorn describes and analyzes the material difficulties faced by early researchers in the field, as well as the way in which these material constraints affected the eventual direction that researchers took. She provides an explicitly feminist analysis, examining both how woman became the paradigmatic subject of sex endocrinology and how the field consolidated itself around the production of the birth control pill. Ultimately, she argues that the convergence of material, institutional, and social forces in the field of sex endocrinology worked to create the modern "hormonal body"--the body we now inhabit and believe to be "natural."
Oudshoorn works with the theories of Ludwik Fleck, who developed the notion that prescientific ideas drive the conceptualization of science. She also examines how distinctions between scientific disciplines -- and their signature "disciplinary styles"--affect research materials, research outcomes, and characteristic experimental techniques. In a theoretical move that characterizes her own disciplinary investments, she argues against an exclusively discursive approach to science studies: "In recent studies . . . sex and the body are portrayed as purely linguistic constructions. This approach does not take into account the ways in which bodies, human and animal, have to be manipulated to make them produce knowledge. . . . The development of scientific knowledge depends not only on ideas, ideologies, or theories, but also on complex instruments, research materials, careful preparatory procedures and testing practices" (pp. 12-13). While Oudshoorn's "hormonal body" may be one discursive effect of science in the twentieth century, she rightly points out that both technology and access to research materials constrain the forms of discourse emanating from scientific practice.
In the first chapter of the book, Oudshoorn argues that the idea that there was only one hormone per sex was later displaced by the observation that both sexes contained both "male" and "female" sex hormones. She writes: "This shift in conceptualization led to a drastic break with the dualistic cultural notion of masculinity and femininity that had existed for centuries" (p. 26). She characterizes this "new model"' of the hormonal body as revolutionizing the "biological definitions of sex": "The model suggested that, chemically speaking, all organisms are both male and female. . . . In this model, an anatomical male could possess feminine characteristics controlled by female sex hormones, while an anatomical female could have masculine characteristics regulated by male sex hormones" (p. 39).
In my limited research in this field, however, I did not note the kind of shifting paradigm that she identifies here, especially in popularizations of medical literature. It seems to me that in this model there is still a significant binarism that directs the perception of the body. Male hormones cause maleness, female hormones cause femaleness: the chemicals themselves are considered to be reduced versions of the sex itself. Even before the period of her investigations, the 1920s and 1930s, there were perceptions that men could have "female" attributes and vice versa (late-nineteenth-century sexology is full of them). Oudshoorn wants the chemical conception of sex hormones to have more scientific and cultural power than it really had (or has). The language about relative amounts of "femininity" and "masculinity"--as measured hormonally in the blood -- continues, rather than subverts, established paradigms of bodily sex. This is where Oudshoorn's disdain of a primarily discursive analysis blurs her usually acute and perceptive vision. Maintaining the biologists' terminology of "male" and "female" hormones has the effect of erasing (or at least diminishing) the biochemists' more transformative conception of the hormonal body.
Chapters 3, 4, and 5 detail the measurement, synthesis, and marketing of sex hormones. Here, the arguments are straightforward and very convincing. Oudshoorn claims that the gaining of access to raw materials was a crucial factor determining how sex hormones came to be studied, produced, and sold. Intimate partnerships between pharmaceutical companies, clinics, laboratories, and even farmers became essential to the pursuit of research. Female sex hormones became the...