Biometric Data You Leave Behind, What’s the Fear?

I read a few comments about the now defunct Fly Clear program and specifically what is happening to the data, namely biometric data. This isn’t a post about the business model and what may or may not have happened to bring about this conclusion but pointing out the dichotomy in the fears over personal data and biometric data.

Kevin Kampman wonders about the data. Jackson Shaw wonders about his biometric data, and Jeff Bohren references these and throws the technology under the bus. I’m sure there are others but I stopped here.

Kevin asks the best question: What about ALL the data? There is personal information, background checks, biometric information, and payment information. What is happening to it indeed? Specifically Jackson and Jeff wonder about the biometric information. My question in response is “what are you afraid of?” Why is the biometric data more sinister than your personal information or payment information?

As I have talked about before, the biometric is a mathematical representation of a physical characteristic. Once it is acquired it is converted into a template – or this mathematical map. A template can not effectively be reverse engineered back into a fake finger or a fake eyeball. And even if it could why would someone do it? What is the threat? What is to be gained? How is that going to be more worthwhile than getting your personal information or payment information?

I suspect the answer to “what are you afraid of” really is cultural. As a society we are familiar and have grown accustomed to providing personal and payment information to 3rd parties. Remember when submitting your credit card information online to a computer, knowing it was encrypted, was more scary than speaking it over a phone, in plain language, to another human? It was new, wasn’t well understood, and wasn’t yet mainstream. For the most part we’ve gotten past this and culturally are no longer afraid.

The same holds true with your biometric data. When your biometric data is used it feels more personal (it feels about you because it really is about you). It is new, it isn’t well understood, and certainly isn’t mainstream. The public is not culturally sensitized to providing biometric data and having it also be left behind even though the impact of leaving it behind to you as a person is far less significant than your personal and payment data. Another example: How many times did you buy something online over the last few years only later to find out the store went bankrupt or was acquired? Same issue as Fly Clear. We don’t freak out because we are accustomed to this.

Biometrics is a technology and not a perfect one. It holds promise for certain applications. What is evident to me is that society still has a ways to go in how it understands biometric data. It doesn’t help adoption that law enforcement uses biometrics for criminals. It doesn’t help when consumer programs like Fly Clear and Pay-by-Touch fail. Society will come around when there are enough successful applications it becomes mainstream and the fear is either well understood or accepted just like it is with personal and payment data.