Technology Impacts

The Unique Identification Authority of India expects the cost of the eye scan process for issuing unique identification to be 30-50 per cent less than fingerprint matching software.

In a status paper on iris scan issued on Wednesday, the authority the cost of the scan had been a concern.

“However, the current high prices for iris technology are a result of low volume and its use in cost insensitive security applications. Considering the large demand that will come from India for iris devices and software, the UIDAI expects the prices for devices and software to fall rapidly,” the paper said.

About the risk of vendor lock, the paper said the UID authority had evaluated the available choices among iris technology vendors and concluded that a lock-in could be avoided.

It said the authority would adopt a three-pronged approach to avoid lock-in. It said that to ensure uniqueness, the UIDAI has to minimise the false acceptance rate (FAR) in its biometrics.

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Voting electronically could prevent future problems at election polling stations, some experts claim.

The US is planning to introduce e-voting and India has already had it in place for some time.

However the British Electorial Commission has expressed concerns about the security of such systems.

The 2010 UK election was marred for those unable to vote within the designated time frame, due to long queues.

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Internet cafes in the United Kingdom are the latest victims of privacy invasive counter$terrorism measures. Scotland Yard recently asked Internet cafe owners to monitor customers’ use of public computers. The authorities are encouraging owners to check activity on their computers and keep an eye on any suspicious activity.

Yet police say it’s not about asking Internet cafe owners to spy on their customers.

These measures seem unreasonable and privacy invasive, and are likely to be ineffective.

This is similar to monitoring calls on a public phone, it has been pointed out.

Surely a criminal or terrorist using an Internet cafe would be savvy enough to hide their tracks. Read the rest of this entry »