Ethics and policy of forensic biometrics

Abstract

Ethical issues raised by forensic biometrics partly overlap with general ethical implications of biometrics. They include issues related to collecting, processing, and storing, personal data, privacy, medical information, and respect for body integrity, risks of misuse and subversive use, and respect for human dignity. There are, however, also ethical issues specifically raised by forensic biometrics. One of them is particularly intriguing. It concerns the nature of biometric evidence and to what extent biometric findings could be accepted as an evidence in court. At a first glance, this problem could seem purely legal, without major ethical implications. Yet, at a deeper analysis, it turns out to have significant ethical components. I will focus on them and on some recent policy developments in this field.