Sentido.tv :: In the wake of major terrorist attacks against densely populated civilian centers in several countries across Europe, Asia and America, governments and private industry are looking at ways of using biometric scanning technology to determine who should or should not have access to certain locations and services. The technology is complicated and highly advanced, but unproven, and potentially highly flawed.

There are concerns that RFID chips, which broadcast a weak but constant radio signal, could become a risk for irreversible identity theft. Irreversible, because if your iris-scan, fingerprints or genetic code are stolen off an electronic chip, it would be nearly impossible to correct flawed information generated by those posing as you.

But there are more ominous signs that the technology itself is planned not as a protection for the individual, but as a constraint on individual freedoms. UK prime minister Tony Blair declared in 2005 that he intended for a 13-element biometric national ID card to become the “single gateway” to everyday life, meaning that without it, you could be shut out of your own life, or made unequal to your fellow citizens, both in law and in practice. [Full Story]

What he failed to note as he made the statement was the implied barrier the cards would set up: that in fact, instead of enhancing one’s access to the basic goods, services and spaces of everyday living, a nationwide mandatory system in which the cards become necessary to gain access, one is actually kept at a distance from the conveniences one needs to move easily through the daily grind of 21st century life.

Another important problem relates to the cards as a security measure: Microsoft warned the British government that the scheme as planned would likely lead to the largest boom in identity theft yet seen, as it would enable those with malicious intent to literally hack into unchangeable personal biological information, meaning that stolen ID information would be permanently useful, and therefore worth a lot more.

There is as yet no clear answer for how to solve the many security problems posed by electrifying the ID card process, but finding that solution is a near absolute necessity, for government, industry and the general public, if the free and open society is to continue serving our needs and safeguarding our rights as it currently does.