Is the compromisation of biometric characteristics a problem?
Biometric characteristics should be as unique and permanent as possible. If compromised, it is argued that biometric characteristics could be misused and then, like a password, rendered unusable, except that a password is always exchangeable whereas a biometric characteristic isn’t. The actual danger depends upon the application and the associated precautions. Yes – if the compromising in a statistical sense is able to create a mean total damage that is larger than the anticipated mean total benefit of a specific biometric application. Generally, one should expect this, when measures against compromisation are in no reasonable proportion to the possible amount of damage. Especially, this affects biometric systems which regard the biometric characteristic solely as secret, although it is easy to compromise and a fake copy can be assembled from it in a simple way. Yes – if properties of the affected person can be extracted from the biometric characteristic which could prove unfavorable f
