According to a recent survey, an overwhelming majority of the respondents support the use of biometric identification on passports, driver’s licenses and Social Security cards, indicating that Americans are willing to forego personal privacy and accept some anticipated misuse in exchange for perceived security. The survey, conducted by TRUSTe and market information group TNS in September 2006, polled 1,025 U.S. consumers about how they view the use of biometrics for a variety of identification purposes. Prior to being surveyed, 70 percent of the respondents had heard of biometrics, the measurement of unique physical characteristics used to verify personal identity.

Three-quarters of Americans support the addition of biometric information to driver’s licenses and 72.6 percent support adding it to Social Security cards, although just 52 percent agreed with the statement that “it will make it much harder for terrorists to operate within the U.S. with the use of biometrics to establish the identity of Americans.” The survey also found that a slight majority expect the use of biometrics to “greatly reduce personal privacy because the government will be able to track your movements.” Sixty percent agreed that “there is a high potential for the government to misuse the information.”

But many also seem unsure as to how effective biometrics is in combating identity theft. More than two-thirds of the respondents (68 percent) believe that adding biometric identifiers to ID documents will make it much more difficult for thieves to steal their identities, but a nearly identical proportion (67 percent) think that “criminals will find a way around the technology.”

“The survey results seem to indicate that in dealing with government use of biometric data, most people will tolerate a decrease in personal privacy to gain increased security in the form of physical safety," said Fran Maier, executive director and president, TRUSTe. "This doesn't seem to translate to the retail sphere where consumers appear to be more cautious about giving away their personally identifiable information. At TRUSTe, we believe the retail sector can build trust in the use of biometrics by promoting privacy through informed choice about the way that consumers' information is going to be used.”

Retail Apprehensions

Although nearly two-thirds supported adding biometric data to credit and debit cards, only 27 percent want that information on a retail store loyalty card. This corresponds to other findings in the survey, where 76 percent of respondents trusted banks and financial institutions “always” or “most of the time” compared to 41 percent indicating trust in retail stores.

The survey revealed that consumers don’t trust systems that use biometric identification as a payment method. Less than 2 percent have used a fingerprint payment system, and 32 percent say that they “do not trust retail stores with this information.” Only 23 percent expressed a desire to use this kind of payment system.

The study, commissioned by TRUSTe and conducted by market research group TNS, a leader in political and social polling, emailed invitations to a nationally representative sample of the U.S. adult online population derived from the TNS NFO Internet Access Panel, which comprises more than one million U.S. households that have agreed to participate in survey research from time to time. In total, 1,025 online interviews were completed. The survey results are considered accurate to within three percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

 

AppLabs Technologies