Evaluation of Users’ Knowledge and Concerns of Biometric Passport Systems

Abstract

The increase in terrorism and identity fraud has forced governments worldwide to make a combined effort to enhance the security of national borders. Biometric passports are the emergent identity travel document deployed in guaranteeing the safekeeping of the entry point of the border and limiting the usage of counterfeit documents. This study analyzes users’ concerns and threats to the biometric passport delivery system in Uganda, where the first biometric passports are planned for rollout in 2019. We used a mixed approach to compute and articulate the results. Factors impacting fear of technology like disclosure of personal data, improper data transmission, and data abuse were determined. Relevance knowledge of preferred technology such as the personal experience of the technology, data privacy awareness and perceived usefulness was confirmed. Threats and attacks on the technology such as counterfeit and brute-force were identified. It is important for policymakers and security expertise to understand that biometric technologies evoke fears of privacy and public liberties infringements. Therefore, end user’s acceptance of biometric passports will be dependent on the degree of trust in the technology itself and in those operating the applications.

Internet Users' Willingness to Disclose Biometric Data for Continuous Online Account Protection: An Empirical Investigation

“…To convince internet users to consent to the processing of biometric data for CAuthN, it is therefore crucial to understand whether and which biometric traits internet users are willing to disclose for this purpose. Previous research on biometrics has mostly examined user perceptions of individual biometric traits in the context of specific systems and has focused on physiological biometric traits only [12,13,17,36,37,52,63,74]. The studies did not compare users' perceptions of different types of biometric traits.…”

“…Considering users' information privacy concerns, risk and trust related to the appropriateness of data handling must be respected, especially when comparing willingness to disclose between different online service types [68]. Previous work indicates that user acceptance of biometric passports depends on user trust in the technology and in the entities operating the technology [36]. Thus, we hypothesize that trust and risk related to the appropriate handling of biometric data disclosed for CAuthN affect users' willingness to disclose biometric traits: H2a: A high level of trust in the appropriate handling of biometric traits by an online service provider has a positive effect on users' willingness to disclose them.…”

Developing an Algorithm for Securing the Biometric Data Template in the Database

“…The vulnerability attacks of the biometric template in the database have evoke fears among the users of biometric applications. This is because of a person"s privacy, public liberties infringements and trustworthiness [7], [8]. For instance, an impostors intention to corrupt and interchange a genuine template with a fake template, the deliberate alteration of an enrolled template by an impostors pattern or biometric operator, has deterred user"s trustworthiness and fear in the technology itself [9].…”