Voice Verification and the U.S. Constitution
Voice Verification and the End of Privacy.
Biometrics is a system where different technological advances are used for two purposes, identification and verification and has significantly more used in the United States over the last few years since the September 11 attacks.
Security in airports and buildings has been of the utmost importance to the government, so over the last few years, the United States has been inventing and investing in new security measures, particularly fingerprinting, face recognition, iris scanning, voice recognition, and microchip technology.
Voice verification technology works by recording a person’s voice and inputting that information onto a biometric lock that will only open if that person speaks into it.
Fingerprints, face recognition and iris scanning are the more accurate forms of biometrics with fingerprinting is the most common, as almost everyone has had their fingerprints taken by the government, while face recognition and iris scanning are becoming more and more used, particularly in airports and government buildings.
Microchips are the newest fad in keeping tabs and tracking people as the United States has begun installing microchips into passports that store all of a person’s information and can be used to track them anywhere around the world.
Fingerprinting
Fingerprinting is one of the simplest way to get accurate results.
Consequently, most government around the world implement a requirement for fingerprints.
Law enforcement agencies use fingerprints to identify criminals easily.
There are two ways of using fingerprints to identify someone.
One involves using ridge ending and bifurcation’s on a person’s finger to make points, called minutiae. This allows two fingerprints to be compared easily.
The other involves removing all distortion from a scanned fingerprint and comparing the patterns. The latter method is actually more accurate.
Facial Scanning
In face scanning technology, a picture is taken of a person and complicated mathematical formulas are used to analyze the structures of the face.
That formula is then used to identify a person on a camera image.
Iris scanning works similarly. A picture of the eye is taken and the patterns are scanned.
Anyone of any age can participate which makes it that much more intrusive.
Full Body X-Rays
Full body x-rays are the new favorite way to scan people at an airport.
Much more secure than just metal detectors, more and more airports are installing these large machines which can scan everything.
This would detect plastic explosives and other such objects that people could potentially be hiding under their clothes.
Of course, many are not willing to sacrifice their privacy when it comes to security.
Before, the alternative to a full body scan was a full body pat-down, and people were complaining about the invasiveness.
Now, many do not feel comfortable because the images created by these machines look almost like nudes, which they do not want airport workers to look at.
The other danger with that is the government would have access to it, and the pictures would be stored on government computers, which anyone could hack into.