Limitations of biometric devices and their system support.
Although biometric devices provide opportunities in organizational settings, organisations willing to implement a biometric system must face to its limitations. The first disadvantage of a biometric system is its high cost. Because a biometric system alone is not effective, it must be combined to a system supporting smart cards. The cost of implementation of both system together can reach sum of hundreds of thousands of dollars. In addition, the training cost of employees to the new system and the temporary loss of productivity due the training program are added up to the implementation of the new system. Secondly, organisations will have to deal with people aversion of using a new system. In term of privacy concerns, people will not likely be willing to accept a system which records and stores their physical and personal traits. Moreover, people often assimilate fingerprints and others physical records to criminal contexts. So common people are more susceptible to reject biometric system while real criminals would refuse it in the fear to be discovered.
Lack of reliability.
The last but not the least disadvantage of biometric system is the lack of reliability of some of its aspect. First, biometric devices can be fooled. As Russel Kay explains in his article Testing the limits of biometrics, "Japanese cryptographer Tsutomu Matsumoto at Yokohama National University found that by making moulds out of gelatine he could reproduce a fingerprint that would fool 80 percent of commercial readers". On the other hand, as fingerprints or any other physical traits are compromised due to falsification, they can not just be replaced like a password or smart card. Finally, a major inconvénient of biometric system is the lack of durability of biometric devices. After a fréquent use of biometric devices, readers lose their reliabilty and their accuracy leading to répétitive false rejection and false authorization
References:
- Thalheim, Lisa.Body check :biometrics defeated. C’t Magazine.2002www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,13919,00.asp
- Kay, Russel. Testing the limis of Biometrics. Computer&Internet Security Insight. Computerworld. 2005.www.techworld.com/features/index.cfm
- Linnhoff, Stefan. The Emergence of Biometrics and Its Effect on Consumers. Journal of Consumer Affairs. 2005.www.allbusiness.com html
