Indian state's success with iris-scanning id to prevent fraud

myp · Dec 10, 2012

India is finding success by using iris-scanners to stop fraud in its (very corrupted) distribution of limited supplies to the poorest of the country. For anyone who is not familiar with India's situation, the country has a terrible poverty program and a terrible corruption problem which often leads government aid for the poor into the wrong hands.

It is an interesting issue because in that situation, this sort of thing has the potential to work wonders. On the flip side, in a richer populace, the risks of such a system might be higher.

http://timharford.com/2012/12/a-question-of-identity/

Protectionist · Dec 28, 2012

Iris scanners have been employed in some countries for border security and it works well. It is a good way of simply knowing who's who. A problem that has gotten out of hand in the US with the growth of the document fraud industry, which makes immigration enforcement tough. Of course it would help if our "leaders" were really trying to control illegal immigration.

tecoyah · Dec 29, 2012

The cost of implementation would be extreme, the civil liberty questions would be problematic, and the cost/benefit ratio completely unacceptable to me.

"
Advantages and disadvantages of iris scans

The biggest advantage of iris scanning is its accuracy and reliability: it's estimated to be ten times more accurate than fingerprinting (claimed to produce around 1 in 1–2 million false matches, compared to fingerprints, which produce around 1 in 100,000). While fingerprints are constantly exposed and susceptible to damage, the iris is naturally protected by the cornea (the eye's transparent front coating) and its pattern seems to remain reliably unchanged for decades (though not necessarily for life). Unlike fingerprint scanners, which need direct contact and have to be kept spotlessly clean, iris scans can be performed safely and hygienically at some distance from the eye.
The drawbacks of iris scanning include greater initial cost and the fact that it's still a relatively untried technology (some trials, for example, have found a much greater rate of false matches than originally claimed). Civil liberties campaigners have also voiced privacy concerns—that future iris-scanning technology could be developed that will allow people to be tracked covertly (at a distance of some meters) without either their knowledge or cooperation."

http://www.explainthatstuff.com/how-iris-scans-work.html

Indian state's success with iris-scanning id to prevent fraud

myp

Protectionist

tecoyah

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