Politicians, academics and technology executives will focus on biometrics and technology's role in homeland security during a February 12 congressional briefing in Washington.
The afternoon briefing is one of several high-profile meetings about the merits and potential privacy concerns of face-recognition technology following the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The suicide bombing missions sparked concern among aviation experts and border patrollers, who are demanding beefed-up surveillance at airports and international checkpoints. But privacy advocates are worried that the technology will unfairly single out certain individuals based on their ethnicity or random similarity to criminals or suspected terrorists.
Howard Wactlar, vice provost for research computing at Carnegie Mellon University, will provide data during the presentation. Executives from digital multimedia company Sonic Foundry will demonstrate the company's Unified Security View security technology, which they say provides a more practical alternative to the currently proposed National ID Card System.
Proponents of the National ID Card System want to issue new security cards to every American. But critics say creating and distributing a tamperproof, inimitable card for an estimated 286 million Americans would be expensive and time-consuming, if not impossible.
Instead of directly embedding information into an entirely new type of card, many scientists are pushing for a system based on biometric data stored in secure databases. This system could then correlate information in the database with photos and other information already stored in drivers' licences and passports.
