Biometrics: History and Typical Applications

Technology, Civil Liberties, and Personal Privacy
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Provide a brief overview of the technology, accompanied by three details about the history/background of the technology.
Brief Overview of the Technology:
Biometric mass surveillance technologies gather and analyze biometric data of any person entering spaces, regardless of whether their data is discarded later on. The Data Law Enforcement Directive (LED) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has classified biometric data as a special type of highly sensitive data, particularly in the era of big data (European Digital Rights, 1).
Big data surveillance would facilitate the gathering, storage, and processing of large amounts of personal data to look for useful patterns to allow the optimization of control tasks. Clavel (2) relates the concept of big data and surveillance technologies aimed to efficiently manage massive and complex amounts of data, whether or not they are confidential, through technologies used for gathering, storing, and analyzing such data.
Interpreting the Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) and the 1990 Resolution of the UN General Assembly have provided guidelines for the protection of personal data such as DNA, voice patterns, fingerprints, eye retinas, cardiac signatures, and hand measurement stored in electronic devices Article 19, 3).
Describe three details of the typical applications of the technology.
In computer security, biometric technologies are used for convenience and security reasons as the data allows for unique identity verification to prevent fraud. According to Kaspersky (4), biometrics cannot be forgotten or lost.
Biometric technologies are also applicable in automated border control, e-Passports, law enforcement, video surveillance, and immigration control.
Snijder notes that the financial industry has particularly benefited from the use of biometric technologies t...