Biometric Technology and Ethics: Beyond Security Applications
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REVIEW PAPER
Biometric Technology and Ethics: Beyond Security Applications Andrea North‑Samardzic1 Received: 14 July 2018 / Accepted: 4 March 2019 © Springer Nature B.V. 2019
Abstract Biometric technology was once the purview of security, with face recognition and fingerprint scans used for identification and law enforcement. This is no longer the case; biometrics is increasingly used for commercial and civil applications. Due to the widespread diffusion of biometrics, it is important to address the ethical issues inherent to the development and deployment of the technology. This article explores the burgeoning research on biometrics for non-security purposes and the ethical implications for organizations. This will be achieved by reviewing the literature on biometrics and business ethics and drawing from disciplines such as computer ethics to inform a more robust discussion of key themes. Although there are many ethical concerns, privacy is the key issue, with associated themes. These include definitions of privacy, the privacy paradox, informed consent, regulatory frameworks and guidelines, and discrimination. Despite the proliferation of biometric technology, there is little empirical research on applied biometrics and business ethics. As such, there are several avenues for research to improve understanding of the ethical implications of using this technology. Keywords Biometric technology · Ethics · Privacy
Introduction Biometric technology is widely used by a variety of organizations. Fingerprint scans and face recognition technology (FRT) are commonly used to assist with surveillance and border security. Recently, biometric technology has been used for commercial and civil applications, such as Facebook and iPhone, for identity management. With this evolution in application, questions arise about the ethical use of such technology within the broader field of technology ethics. It is its own field, distinct from other technological innovations such as artificial intelligence, three-dimensional printing, cloud technology, data analytics, nanotechnologies, and robotics (Schuelke-Leech 2018). Like these technologies, biometrics is disruptive, as it has the capacity to “restructure, reorganize, disrupt current social and institutional norms and standards, operations, production, trends, An earlier version of this paper was accepted for the 77th Academy of Management Meeting. * Andrea North‑Samardzic [email protected] 1
Department of Management, Deakin Business School, Deakin University, 70 Elgar Road, Burwood, VIC 3125, Australia
not limited to a particular market or industry” (SchuelkeLeech 2018, p. 270). Unlike other technological innovations, biometrics leads to additional ethical concerns. Collecting biometric data have been described as “giving up a piece of yourself” (Alterman 2003), akin to extracting a biological sample (Milligan 1999), making it “intrusive” (Sprokkereef and de Hert 2012) and “invasive” (Jain and Kumar 2012) for data subjects. With the advent of second-generation behavioral
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