Societal Ethics and Biometric Technologies

This report addresses the widespread ethical issues raised by the increasing use of biometric technologies. It concentrates on the social and political effects of novel governmental schemes of policing, surveillance and identity management that combine biometric information with cloud based computing and the automated analysis of big data. In doing so, the report aims in particular to analyse the implicit value assumptions in the deployment of biometric technologies and the legal and rights issues these are raising. To date, ethical analyses of biometric technologies have tended to focus on the impact on individuals, with an emphasis on privacy. This report complements this focus by highlighting societal dimensions of the ethics of biometric technologies.