Ethical Issues in Governing Biometric Technologies

This article deals with the ethical considerations raised by the collection, storage and use of biometric data. Comparisons are drawn with human genetic databases. It will be shown that besides ethical assessment of new technologies, it is also interesting to see how the advancement of these technologies has posed challenges to existing ethical frameworks, putting collective values and public interests above individual rights. The comparison of biometric databases with medical research oriented genetic databases shows that public interest may be differently constructed: while genetic databases projects create a discourse of hope, biometric databases are surrounded by a discourse of threat. What both have in common is the imbalanced discussion of benefits and risks. The lack of knowledge and understanding of possible benefits and drawbacks of new technologies makes it difficult to build and maintain authentic public trust, which is of crucial importance for good ethical governance of databases.

[1]  Robert Boguslaw,et al.  Privacy and Freedom , 1968 .

[2]  G. Marx.  Hey Buddy can you spare a DNA? New surveillance technologies and the growth of mandatory volunteerism in collecting personal information. , 2007, Annali dell'Istituto superiore di sanita.

[3]  John Kekes,et al.  The Morality of Pluralism , 1993 .

[4]  I. V. D. Ploeg,et al.  Biometrics and Privacy A note on the politics of theorizing technology , 2003 .

[5]  Gardar rnason,et al.  BLOOD & DATA: ETHICAL, LEGAL AND SOCIAL ASPECTS OF HUMAN GENETIC DATABASES , 2004 .

[6]  Raj Nanavati,et al.  Biometrics: Identity Verification in a Networked World , 2002 .

[7]  Anil K. Jain,et al.  Fingerprint-Based Recognition , 2007, Technometrics.

[8]  O. O’neill,et al.  Some limits of informed consent , 2003, Journal of medical ethics.

[9]  Ian G. Barbour.  Ethics in an Age of Technology , 1992 .

[10]  Bartha Maria Knoppers,et al.  Human genetic research: emerging trends in ethics , 2006, Nature Reviews Genetics.

[11]  O. O’neill.  Informed Consent and Genetic Information , 2001 .

[12]  A. Alterman,et al.  ``A piece of yourself'': Ethical issues in biometric identification , 2003, Ethics and Information Technology.

[13]  Vilhjalmur Arnason,et al.  Coding and Consent: Moral Challenges of the Database Project in Iceland , 2004, Bioethics.

[14]  D. Schroeder,et al.  Human genetic banking: altruism, benefit and consent , 2004, New genetics and society.

[15]  Ruth Chadwick,et al.  Solidarity and equity: new ethical frameworks for genetic databases , 2001, Nature Reviews Genetics.

[16]  U. Beck.  Risk Society Revisited: eory, Politics and Research Programmes , 2006 .

[17]  Gregory J. Walters,et al.  Privacy and security: an ethical analysis , 2001, CSOC.

[18]  Jane Kaye,et al.  Principles and Practice in Biobank Governance , 2009 .

[19]  Emilio Mordini,et al.  Ethical and social implications of biometric identification technology. , 2007, Annali dell'Istituto superiore di sanita.

[20]  Irma van der Ploeg,et al.  The illegal body: `Eurodac' and the politics of biometric identification , 1999, Ethics and Information Technology.

[21]  Jeroen van den Hoven,et al.  Information Technology and Moral Philosophy , 2008 .

[22]  Amitai Etzioni,et al.  The Limits Of Privacy , 1999 .

[23]  John Leubsdorf,et al.  Privacy and Freedom , 1968 .

[24]  K. Simm.  Benefit-sharing: an inquiry regarding the meaning and limits of the concept in human genetic research , 2005, Genomics, society, and policy.

[25]  M. Levitt.  Forensic databases: benefits and ethical and social costs. , 2007, British medical bulletin.

[26]  A. Goldworth.  Informed Consent in the Genetic Age , 1999, Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics.

[27]  Ants Nõmper.  Open consent - a new form of informed consent for population genetic databases , 2005 .