What can be done against compromisation of ones biometric characteristics?
Provide your biometric characteristics only to trustworthy applications of trustworthy system operators. The operator must commit not to pass the biometric data to third parties but to store them with sufficient protection, at best encrypted. Favor biometric applications which are exclusively able to utilize your biometric data if you present a chip card which is under your control. (On this chip card the biometric references may be stored, or a secret personal key which allows a temporary decryption of your biometric data stored in the biometric system in encrypted form.) Do not publish your biometric characteristics, if these are inherently difficult to compromise and therefore could be regarded as secrets by a certain biometric application. Examples are fingerprint, iris, or vein patterns. This is critical especially in those cases where a forger is able to assign the biometric data to a designated person.
