This chapter discusses the major societal and ethical issues raised by biometrics in an ageing society. There are various well-known problems associated with biometrics, like privacy concerns, which certainly affect older people, but which in fact pertain to all users, regardless of age. And there are various ethical and societal issues arising in relation to biometrics and older people, e.g. issues of inclusion and exclusion, which also arise with other non-biometric technologies.

Chapter Contents:

• 3.1 Introduction
• 3.2 The nature of the problem
• 3.2.1 The vulnerabilities of tokens
• 3.2.2 Ageing and age as 'problems' for biometrics
• 3.3 Social and ethical factors
• 3.3.1 Social and ethical factors: problems of age
• 3.3.2 Social and ethical factors: the problem of ageing
• 3.4 A sketch of an approach to 'age-blind' biometrics
• Acknowledgements
• References

Inspec keywords: biometrics (access control); ethical aspects; geriatrics; age issues; data privacy

Other keywords: ethical issues; older people; ageing society; biometrics; privacy concerns; societal issue

Subjects: Economic, social and political aspects of computing