onClick Biometrics in touch

US Consumers say: Bring it on!

A survey sponsored by AuthenTec found out something. Imagine that. No really, based on 2,000 responses - from adults no less - U.S. consumers appear to be willing to pay for the security that fingerprint biometrics can offer. Specifically, 63% said they would use biometrics for their PCs and laptops, and 71% would use the feature in their cell phones.

What's interesting is that in Asia 4 million biometric cell phones are already in use, and here we are posting about every new fingerprint enabled phone that comes our way like it's breaking news. The US definitely needs to step up. The people have spoken!

Albeit, it is a survey sponsored by a manufacturer, which to me always lessens the validity of it. AuthenTec is a great brand, but they did this to promote their products. When vendors/manufacturers have their hand in research surveys, it could always be a little biased.

Here are the survey findings yanked directly from the article.

In the PC and notebook computer segment, the survey shows that:

Younger consumers (18-44) are the most interested and are willing to pay the highest price for a biometrically-enabled device. 

Parents also showed a higher interest than non parents in adding the feature to PCs than non-parents - at 75 percent versus 58 percent.

43 percent are most interested in using fingerprint sensors to replace their computer or internet passwords

Navigating the cursor and automatically starting favorite programs were other key capabilities consumers were interested in using.

Three in ten (29 percent) said they would be willing to pay more than $25 for the additional feature.

In the wireless segment, the survey shows that:

71 percent are interested in adding fingerprint sensors to protect their sensitive and personal information stored on their cellular phone.

Overall, 32 percent would be willing to spend more than $25 to have the feature added to their cell phones, while nearly half (45 percent) of young adults (18-24) indicated they are willing to pay more than $25.

60 percent said they would like to use biometrically-enabled cellular phones as a replacement for their wallets - debit cards or credit cards -- to conduct purchases or online banking. Nearly half of those said they would be interested in using a biometric cell phone to purchase items from a store, while 30 percent for wireless banking, 27 percent to gain access to mass transit, and 25 percent for wireless shopping.

Parents, younger adults, and men are the most interested in using the cell phones as a replacement for their wallets.

New Mexico works to make the state inhospitable to identity thieves

New Mexico is launching a campaign to educate on identity theft. The state was ranked 13th in the amount of crimes committed, so rationalizing $200,000 from the Securities Division to cover the campaign should seem worth it. It all began on December 4th with an hour long TV special.

In due time, enough states will be investing their money to the cause, and creating such a ruckus about curbing identity theft that maybe a national organization will be created. A non-profit help center for minimizing loss and capturing the culprits.

(In the meantime, there are companies that exist to provide identity theft insurance and such, like Identity Theft 911.)

New campaign to inform about identity theft.

New DHS Leader?

Awaiting consent of the Senate is President Bush's nomination for replacement of Tom Ridge. That would be former New York City police commisioner Bernard Kerik. He has been a part of the efforts relating to 9/11 and terrorism since well, 9/11, so this should be nothing new to him.
Bush nominates Kerik for Homeland Security.

Keep the 'bad man' out.

It's good to be involved in an industry that can provide people with something they really need. Such as security. And security for young children is even better. There's an organization in Florida that provides therapy to children up to five years old with disabilities - and they've begun a project to prevent unauthorized visitors from gaining access to the facility. They are using fingerprint to identify parents, staff, volunteers and vendors. It appears that this is a pilot program that this particular organization was selected for. No idea what the full intent of the program is. Likely just a test to see if biometrics used for child protection shows enough interest.
Read the press release.

Visiting an inmate? Don't forget your thumb

First, I would just like to gripe about newspapers online that don't label their location in an obvious spot. Don't they know that people come in back doors all the time, like google? I'm not a regular reader, but if a particular story interests me, I would like to know where the heck the story is taking place!

That aside, a jail in South Australia has invested their time and money into thumb recognition for visitors and prisoners as an added safety feature. $8 million gets them  a vistor center that identifies the participants and a detector that can find even the smallest of metal on a person. Guess you can forget about slipping the inmate a key and nail file in a homemade cake.

$8m visiting section for jail.

A little less talk and a lot more action

Sure there have been some passive efforts to curb privacy abuse concerns when it comes to collecting biometric information. Promises made, articles breaking down mythes and the logistics of it.

But now we have the possibility of a law drafted in January that could begin the forward motion of many other initiatives to combat and dismiss the chances of privacy abuse or feature creap. This would open up doors for the technology, letting it be a viable consideration for environments that may not have wanted to deal with the issue of convincing users that the government wouldn't just come along and snatch up information to be used against them in something completely irrelevant to its orginal purpose.

It's definitely worth keeping an eye on.

New Jersey drafts bill for use of biometrics.

Moving FAST

Singapore has come up with a much more clever name for their frequent flyer project than the US's commonly called.... er... frequent flyer project. They have coined this procedure FAST - Fully Automated Seamless Travel. Just like the trials going on in the US, the Singapore Changi Airport will provide frequent travelers with a card that holds facial and fingerprint data so that they can avoid the full extent of security checkpoints.
Singapore Changi Airport testing biometrics-based system.

Also relevant to this theme is the effort by Asia-Pacific to be forward-moving with biometrics, now moving it beyond an 'emerging technology'. New Zealand leads the way, making headway with international standards on e-passports.
Biometrics in Asia-Pacific.

A passport debate.

As deliberations over a smart passport become more common, so do articles like this.

Some question how 'smart' new passports will be.

The United States hasn't issued any microchip-equipped passports yet, but as the Department of State tests different prototypes, the international standards for the passports are under fire from privacy advocates who worry the technology won't protect travelers from identity thieves.

The Queen speaks

And she will say to bring on the biometrics. She has a speech tomorrow to the UK who will hear what the future holds for national ID cards, straight from the Queen herself.

The biometric cards would be introduced in 2008 as part of efforts against terrorism, illegal working, misuse of public services and illegal immigration.

A decision on making them compulsory is not expected to be made until 2014 but Mr Blunkett says he is now thinking it could come sooner - perhaps between 2010 and 2012.

Crime tops Queen's speech agenda.

Smart guns, smart manufacturers

So scientists at the New Jersey Institute of Technology may not be ready to release their fingerprint-enabled hand gun into the consumer market just yet, but apparently Smith & Wesson is.  While NJIT is conducting research on creating a safe, reliable means of using biometrics on a hand gun, Smith & Wesson has announced their partnership with American Security Co. to add safes and biometric guns to their product line.  No word on when the guns will be available though. They may still be testing final products as well.

Smith & Wesson adds to gun safety line-up.