Rahaf Addali, Year 11 – Activity: Using Biometric scanners (page 29)

Type of Advantages Disadvantages

biometric
recognition
Facial  Convenient for  It is a clear
recognition unlocking devices, invasion of
more secure than privacy as it
passwords, can be used by
especially 4 digit and the
6 digit password government to
combinations. bring up videos
 Provide more of you going
security by about your
recovering criminals daily life. This
and missing can also be
children. used as a
 Can be used as a method to stop
part of security people from
check at airport protesting
checkpoints. against things
 Can help protect they do not
businesses from agree with or
theft by installing this things that put
technology in CCTV them in
cameras. danger.
 Decreases crime  To unlock
rates, as more devices, your
criminals will be face has to be
reluctant to do staring directly
crimes in the at it as it is
presence of such unable to
technology. detect from
certain angles.
Rahaf Addali, Year 11 – Activity: Using Biometric scanners (page 29)

 Unique as it is very  It can’t

rare for someone to recognize
have a carbon copy simple
of your features. changes. For
 Can improve the example, my
security of shopping phone can’t
and make it more recognize me
convenient, as only when I’m
your face is needed wearing a
to automatically mask and my
charge the goods to Mum’s laptop
your account. can’t recognize
her without the
hijab.
 Although it is
argued to be
more secure
than
passwords, in
the case of
locking and
unlocking
devices,
people can use
pictures of you
to unlock the
device.
However, I
think it only
gets to this
extent if the
said person is
extremely
wealthy or
important.
 Databases
which save
Rahaf Addali, Year 11 – Activity: Using Biometric scanners (page 29)

your face’s
data for future
usage can
easily be
breached or
sold. You can
never entirely
trust firms who
store such
personal
information.
 Most countries
– if not all –
have not
passed on
legislation to
control the use
of facial
recognition.
This makes
some people
think it’s alright
to abuse our
privacy by
obtaining our
images.
 Large-scale
identifying and
storing our
data
discriminates
against
privacy. By
storing our
data for future
use, we
basically put
Rahaf Addali, Year 11 – Activity: Using Biometric scanners (page 29)

our privacy out

to the public
without
knowing.
 According to a
study carried
out by the
University of
Toronto,
modifying a
few pixels of
an image can
make it
unrecognizable
to facial
recognition.

Fingerprint  Provide security as  Cost of

recognition each human being fingerprint
has a unique scanners can
fingerprint. be very
 Very accurate. expensive to
Technology is set up.
developed so it can’t  Fingerprint
make a mistake in recognition
analysing your does not
fingerprint. recognise
 Can also be used to physical
identify criminals changes in the
from crime scenes. fingers.
This is a major help Manual
in crime scene workers may
investigations. have worn out
 Can also be used as fingerprints,
means of making which excludes
shopping easier and them, as well
more convenient by as people with
Rahaf Addali, Year 11 – Activity: Using Biometric scanners (page 29)

recognizing the no fingers,

fingerprint and from
matching it with a registering a
user’s credit/debit fingerprint for
card. authentication.
 Can be used to  As developed
identify a member of as they can be,
a private club or fingerprint
organization and recognition
improves the devices do not
security. always read
 Fingerprints can’t be fingerprints
transferred or correctly,
‘shared’ with another which can
person, which result to
increases their rejection of the
security. actual owner of
 Can be used in the fingerprint.
workplaces to  Fingerprint
provide recognition
accountability for devices fail to
being present at recognize a
work. fingerprint of
 the owner’s
finger is wet,
moist, oily or
dirty.
 Fingerprints
are left on
everything we
touch, so
samples can
be used to
access a
device with a
fingerprint lock.
Rahaf Addali, Year 11 – Activity: Using Biometric scanners (page 29)

Voice  Talking is much  Security is not

Recognition faster than typing, so promising.
this can be very Voices and
convenient. tones can be
 Can help boost easily imitated.
efficiency levels.  People also
Devices like tend to talk in
Amazon’s Alexa and different tones
Siri can help a so a device
person run errands with voice
without the need to recognition
get out of the house, technology
which can be very may not
time-efficient. identify the
same person
at times.
 Voice
recognition
devices may
also fail to
recognize
speech with
strong accents.
 Some physical
factors, such
as a temporary
voice loss can
affect the
efficiency of
voice
recognition
devices.
Iris  Iris patterns are  Will still scan a
recognition usually very random detached eye.
so it is unlikely for  Will also match
another person to an eye of an
Rahaf Addali, Year 11 – Activity: Using Biometric scanners (page 29)

share the same unconscious

pattern as you. person.
 Iris recognition  Has the
devices also analyse possibility of
a lot of details in the being fooled by
iris when scanning a high-quality
which makes it more photo.
reliable. 
 The patterns of an
iris are generally
stable throughout an
entire lifespan,
unlike fingerprint
recognition.
 Glasses and contact
lenses do not affect
iris recognition’s
ability to match the
iris.

2. How do you feel about fingerprint recognition? Surely

you have used it multiple times as it is becoming more
engraved in our lives?

I think it is very secure. Computers and most devices in general

have a multi-factor authentication, which includes a password,
fingerprint recognition and facial recognition. This way, if one
does not work users can still log in and use their devices.
Fingerprint recognition is very secure as each person has a
unique fingerprint.

Do you have any concerns regarding facial recognition?

Rahaf Addali, Year 11 – Activity: Using Biometric scanners (page 29)

The only problem with facial recognition is that if you wear a hat
or a mask, or in general something that hides a part of your
features, it fails to recognize you.

Have you ever used voice recognition? It is one of the less

common biometric scanners used when it comes to
securing devices or objects but we use it in our daily lives
through Siri or Cortana, for example. Do you have any
complaints regarding how it functions?

Although I have never used voice recognition technology as

protection/security for something, my experience with voice
recognition that Apple implements with Siri is awful, as Siri
quite literally does not understand anything.

Iris recognition seems to be the biometric scanner we use

the least in our lives. What do you think of the way it
functions and the consequences it brings about?

I think it rivals with fingerprint recognition as the most secure

biometric scanner. It is impossible for another being to replicate
your iris.

3. What affects the reliability of each biometric scanner?

A lot of factors can affect the reliability of biometric canners. For

instance, facial recognition systems can be fooled by high
Rahaf Addali, Year 11 – Activity: Using Biometric scanners (page 29)

quality photos. The facial recognition databases have been

proved to be easy to breach.

Voice recognition systems can also be easily fooled by imitation

of voices or recordings of a person’s voice. Out of all biometric
scanners, they are probably the least reliable.

Fingertip recognitions are quite reliable. Since everyone has a

unique fingerprint, it’s difficult to fool the system. People would
argue that criminals may cut your finger off or drug you and use
your finger or anything of the sort but I think that happens in
rare cases only. For people who aren’t affiliated with such
people, fingerprint recognition is very reliable.

Lastly, iris recognition, the biometric scanner which is arguably

the hardest to trick. Our irises are all unique and random, and
iris recognition devices usually scan and analyse all the minor
details in the iris, which should be very hard to fool. Even if a
high quality picture is acquired, I doubt any high quality pictures
or cameras would be able to capture the minor details hidden
deep inside the iris, so this makes iris recognition the most
reliable. It’s only flaw is that if an eye is gouged out or if the
person is unconscious, it would still match their eye.

4. What other factors could be considered when choosing

a biometric security system?

External factors can have a huge impact when it comes to

choosing the right biometric scanner. At times, reliability isn’t
the main factor to be put into consideration. Cost of setting up
Rahaf Addali, Year 11 – Activity: Using Biometric scanners (page 29)

biometric scanners and what they are needed for also play a
massive impact. Small businesses in need of security may not
afford to invest in an iris recognition system and so will opt for a
facial recognition, which costs less and will still provide
adequate security as small firms usually have no reason to
need top-notch security.

In other cases such as a private organization, where tight

security is needed, iris recognition may be the desired biometric
scanners. Private organizations usually can afford to invest in
iris recognition.