Technologization of Security: Management of Uncertainty and Risk in the Age of Biometrics

Abstract

Contemporary security policies are characterized by a dramatic focus on high technology like biometrics as a security enabler. The process of the technologization of security, i.e. the making of technology the centerpiece of security systems and its perception as an absolute security provider, started in the US in the Eighties and has since been expanded to the European Union (EU) and to almost all developed countries. In this process, biometrics is accepted as the ultimate technology to identify people with certainty. This article examines this emphasis on biometrics in France and in the US in the context of the transformations of late modernity and analyses the philosophical and ethical issues that the emphasis on the body as the core element of identification systems raises.

Smart and secure borders through automated border control systems in the EU? The views of political stakeholders in the Member States

“…For example, some authors were alarmed by modern states' proactive use of risk management technologies (Ceyhan 2008, Skleparis 2016. These observers associate such technologies with securitisation, that is, processes in which issues are brought under the security logic of emergency measures, delimiting public debate and involvement (Lodge 2004, Muller 2011.…”

Technologies, déqualification et luttes d’influence chez les professionnels de la sécurité frontalière

“…D'une part, la « technologisation » des frontières (Ceyhan, 2008) remet en question les conceptions traditionnelles de l'espace frontalier. Une littérature multidisciplinaire substantielle théo-rise la sécurité des frontières en tant qu'ensemble de techniques et de rationalités qui inaugurent la frontière contemporaine comme espace élargi de contrôle des circulations (cf., entre autres, Balibar, 2009 ;Squire, 2011 ;Weber & Bowling, 2004).…”

Borders, Risks, Exclusions

“…Put simply, technology has itself become the centerpiece of contemporary security systems (Ceyhan, 2008). As Salter (2006) notes, by imposing biometric passports on foreigners who seek entry into the United States, the US administration contributed directly to the transformation of biometrics into a global security norm (also see Ceyhan, 2008).…”

“…Put simply, technology has itself become the centerpiece of contemporary security systems (Ceyhan, 2008). As Salter (2006) notes, by imposing biometric passports on foreigners who seek entry into the United States, the US administration contributed directly to the transformation of biometrics into a global security norm (also see Ceyhan, 2008). Both institutional changes to the border agencies in Canada and the US, as well as the increasing reliance on surveillance and technological means of prescreening-which is presented as an effective means for pre-assessing risk-have dramatically changed how the border functions and is experienced by those crossing it, and have likewise dramatically altered the landscape of influential stakeholders involved in the management of the border.…”