Biometric Security - basically Security Theater
Biometric identification systems are all the rage - heck, they've been the rage for years now. The problem, of course, is what biometric signs to use for identification. Fingerprints ? D.H. Kaye showed in 2003 that the statistical evidence showing that fingerprints are unique is not at all conclusive As HackLaw puts it No court has ever challenged the expert-ness of an expert witness who purported to be an expert on fingerprints. Why not? To be an expert in something, there has to be a body of knowledge for you to know about.Where is the body of knowledge about fingerprints? They swirl around, we know that much right? But, it turns out that there is no publicly available database of this evidence (really!) It gets worse Fingerprint evidence is difficult to deal with in trial because the examiner offers his or her "opinion" as if it were indisputable fact. In truth, the examiner identifies a number of points of comparison and then, if similar t...