The biometrics industry, tired of bad press and what one CEO called "hysteria" over applications such as face-scanning, is working hard to improve its public image.
Privacy advocates charge that face-scanning and other biometrics -- technologies that identify people using their physical characteristics –- smack of Big Brother and could be used to track anti-government activists.
But industry leaders complain that the media has flaunted worst-case scenarios without mentioning the technologies' benefits.
The makeover effort is exemplified in a call put out by The Biometric Digest -- a top industry news source -- for subscribers to send in their "Good News Biometric Stories."
Bill Rogers, who publishes the newsletter out of St. Louis, said he got the idea when a subscriber asked him to run more stories about how biometrics benefit John Q. Public.
"I thought, doggonit, you're right," Rogers said. "We need to give a different slant. We need examples of lives being saved, lost children being found, terrorists being stopped."
He's asking people to send "documented and referenceable (sic) cases where an ordinary citizen has been helped significantly by biometrics."
Biometrics burst into the public view after faces of football fans were scanned at Super Bowl XXXV and compared to the mugshots of common criminals. The biometrics industry has been fending off Orwellian accusations ever since.
Privacy advocates dubbed the event "Snooper Bowl" and were widely cited in the press warning of a nightmarish society where citizens were monitored by remote cameras, comments that incensed industry folks.
"The knee-jerk reaction has always been the Big Brother angle, which is ridiculous because it's not recognizing anyone but criminals," said Joseph Atick, CEO of Visionics Corporation. "I look forward to a more substantive dialogue."
A direct benefit of Visionics' FaceIt surveillance software has been a dramatic drop in crime in a scruffy London neighborhood, he said.
But industry folks also criticized the way the technology was implemented at the Super Bowl, saying police should have posted signs letting fans know they were being recorded.
"The real perception problems come from passive technologies that can be used without public knowledge," said Richard Norton, the executive director of the International Biometric Industry Association.
In July, the association called for federal rules controlling biometric applications.
"We haven't seen any backlash over the public hysteria, but we need to make sure this technology isn't abused," he said. "If it is, the public would lose their confidence completely."
What's needed -– besides heartwarming stories about how biometrics saved the day -– are applications that convince the public that biometrics work on a personal level, such as ATM or credit cards that use the technology to prevent fraud, industry reps say.
"The public will have a broader acceptance of these technologies if they become active participants in them," said David Teitelman, the CEO of eTrue.
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