Privacy experts have said that Israel's plan for a universal biometric ID card could face security issues.Speaking to Arutz Sheva, the author Liz McIntyre said biometric datbases simply aren't safe.”With any kind of tracking technology that is introduced, all the positives are put forward towards adoption, a lot of times using scare tactics, like, 'This database is for when people go missing', or, 'To make sure that we know who you are for your bank account', those kind of things, but very few of the downsides are brought forward.”Of course, this law is talking about putting biometric information in a database, and we know from the recent past that databases are far from being secure. This is even more of a problem for biometric information, because it links directly to a person, and it's supposed to be an even better proxy for an individual.This week, the Israeli Knesset (parliament) passed a new law that mandates identity cards which include more advanced ways of keeping track of people and make it easier to store identities and share information between agencies and governments. It is presented as a good thing, a way to track missing or lost persons, and to aid in law-enforcement.”Imagine that this data gets in the hands of a hacker, for example, who can use this – I understand that this is going to be stored digitally – the hacker can take this information and pose even more believably as an individual, perhaps accessing a bank account or other accounts. So I have serious concern any time information is placed in a database, but particularly with biometrics information”, said McIntyre.McIntyre was co-author with Dr. Katherine Albrecht of Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Purchase and Watch Your Every Move, and who works as a consultant for Startpage.com and Startmail.com, privacy-based services to help protect consumers against surveillance..”In addition, the problem with biometric information is that it can be tracked across multiple devices, and for multiple reasons. So, not only would this be say, on an identity card, perhaps, but if this information is shared, let's say someone is signing into a mobile device or even a desktop computer using a fingerprint, that's a way to uniquely identify someone, not only on one computer but on multiple devices – pretty much anywhere. And so, then you're making people even more traceable, which is really a bad idea for privacy.”
Critics take aim at Israel’s biometric database plan
