Fingerprint technology
Home Office minister Meg Hillier has a touching faith in the efficacy of fingerprinting to confirm personal identity (Letters, 28 August).
Even at a very basic level the technology has a measurable failure rate and is known to present particular problems for those in certain groups, such as pensioners and manual workers.
However, much more seriously, biometrics expert Professor John Daugman of Cambridge University has calculated that the UK population is much too large to allow the reliable widespread use of fingerprint technology. Even with a target population as low as six million the high frequency of false ID matching would render the technology worthless.
(DR) JOHN WELFORD
Boat Green
Edinburgh
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Monday 13 February 2012
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