Is biometric technology physically safe for the individual?
• Yes. The methods employed to gather biometric data on individuals are noninvasive and pose no threat to physical health or well-being. When properly installed, biometric devices enhance both security and ease of access. No health hazards have occurred in the more than 25 years that biometric devices have been in use. • Are identification and authentication/verification the same? • No. In biometrics, identification occurs when a live biometriclike a fingerprintis compared electronically to a database containing many stored fingerprint images and a match is found. Identification compares one to many, where authentication or verification is a one to one comparison. Identification systems ask, Who are you? Authentication systems ask, Are you who you claim to be? • Why choose fingerprints over another type of biometric? • Fingerprints provide one of the oldest and most accepted forms of personal verification; no two fingerprints ever have been found to be the same. The use of fingerprints
