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Entry bubble Your Fingerprints Are Everywhere

By: Nancy | April 17, 2008 | Category: Home and Family

You cover your world with them—invisible markers of where you've been and what you've done. And as technology changes and the country focuses more on security, your fingerprints are being used to identify you more often, in more situations.

fingerprint and handFingerprinting and background checks have been standard for a long time for government and law enforcement job applicants. But many states are now requiring applicants for mortgage broker licenses and childcare and teaching positions to get fingerprinted for background checks. And as their teachers are being fingerprinted, child safety experts recommend that kids themselves should be fingerprinted too, so parents will have a record of their prints in case their kids are lost or abducted.

While those old-fashioned, thumb-on-the-inkpad fingerprints work for background checks and for identifying your kids, technology has helped develop a whole different way of collecting and using your prints using biometrics, the automated system of identifying you electronically by your unique physical characteristics like your fingerprints and irises, and by your movements like the way you walk, sign your name and type on a keyboard.

Even if the term "biometrics" is as new to you as it is to me, you may already be using fingerprint biometric equipment if you clock in at work with your finger and not a time card, you've been to a major theme park in the past couple years or use a fingerprint reader attached to your computer instead of typing in passwords.

This biometric equipment works great most of the time for most people...except those rare few, like a coworker of mine, born without fingerprints. It was hard for her to get her FBI clearance to work in our agency, but it sure makes for great cocktail party conversation.

What's your experience—have you encountered biometric equipment on the job or in your travels? What do you think about it?

| Post a Comment | View Comments [7] | envelope E-mail This Entry | Tags: fbi   fingerprints   nancy   recognition  

Comments (7):

blue comment bubble Posted by Citizen on April 17, 2008 at 11:01 AM EDT

Nancy: Thanks for this posting. I had forgotten how taken-aback I was when I visited Disney World last December and had to submit to a fingerscan to enter the park. It was creepy and I probably should have refused but I shuffled sheep-like through the line and followed instructions. I understand that we live in a dangerous world but we need to stand-up a little more to protect our personal freedoms when the precautions become unreasonably invasive..

Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both. Benjamin Franklin

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blue comment bubble Posted by David Davenport on April 17, 2008 at 12:01 PM EDT

My company uses time and attendance software with a fingerprint biometric component from M2SYS Technology (www.m2sys.com). At first, we were concerned that the technology would be too invasive or have an impact on identity protection, but once we understood how the technology worked, we were less concerned. Even though the system captures a fingerprint image, it is immediately converted to a binary template (a series of 1's and 0's that are unique to the data points on each person's fingers). The optical image is destroyed so even if someone were to hack into the system, the information would be virtually meaningless to them. It has significantly reduced the costs associated with "buddy punching" (users clocking in and out for one another) at our company.

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blue comment bubble Posted by Citizen Jmaximus on April 18, 2008 at 07:16 AM EDT

I can understand checking for criminal activity, but why are employers checking peoples credit history? Unless I am borrowing money from them I don't see how it is anybodies biz except my own.

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blue comment bubble Posted by DO WE BELIEVE NO PRINTS? on April 18, 2008 at 01:19 PM EDT

JUST A COMMENT THEY COULD COME UP WITH SOME KIND OF INDENTIFYING CODE FOR ALL FINGERS. I NEVER BY THAT SCIENCE HAS NO WAY TO CODE ANY PRINT FROM HUMAN OR ANIMALS. THEY MAY NEED TO COME UP WITH SYSTEM FOR PEOPLE BORN WITH SOME PRINT DETECTION DEFECTS BY THERE IS A WAY TO PRINT THE FBI JUST MAY BE A LITTLE LAZY AND SCIENTIST IN REGARDS TO RELEASES THE TECHNOLOGY THAT CAN PRINT EVERYONE...

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blue comment bubble Posted by Mitesh on April 18, 2008 at 02:45 PM EDT

Great Job guys !! Thanks.

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blue comment bubble Posted by DO WE BELIEVE NO PRINTS?PART 2 on May 09, 2008 at 12:56 PM EDT

AGAIN I BELIEVE SOME HAVE COME UP WITH A WAY TO BE UNPRINTABLE TO GET AWAY WITH CRIME DOWN TO THE EXACT SCIENCE OF FIRST MAKING IT BELIEVABLE THAT IT'S A WAY TO NOT BE PRINTABLE THEN USING THOSE PERSON FILES TO HIDE FROM THE SYSTEM AND COMPLETE HIGH CRIME INTERNATIONALLY SO BEWARE IS SOMEONE GETTING AWAY WITH THE PRINTS?

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blue comment bubble Posted by Hikaye on May 09, 2008 at 04:07 PM EDT