A response to the European Data Protection Supervisor ‘Misunderstandings in Biometrics’ by the European Association for Biometrics

Christoph Busch,Olaf Henniger,Christian Rathgeb,Farzin Deravi,Pawel Drozdowski,Kiran Raja,Jean Salomon,Raghavendra Ramachandra,Georg Hasse,Jascha Kolberg,Raymond Veldhuis,Els Kindt,Marta Gomez‐Barrero,Alexander Nouak,Adam Czajka

doi:10.1049/bme2.12057

Abstract

The intention of this position paper is to comment on the joint European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS)-Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (aepd) publication ‘14 Misunderstandings with regard to Biometric Identification and Authentication’ that was published in June 2020 and to provide additional input to help with the better understanding of the issues raised in that publication. In particular, it aims to highlight some important missing information in the aforementioned publication. It is hoped that this paper will help with any future revision of the EDPS-aepd publication, such that it includes a full picture of the current state of the art in biometrics and the availability of standards and privacy enhancing techniques.

Highlights

The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) together with the Spanish Agencia Española de Protección de Datos has published a white paper entitled ‘14 Misunderstandings with regard to Biometric Identification and Authentication’.1 The paper looks at biometric identification and verification2,3 and focuses on fingerprint and face recognition
The system behaviour of biometric systems that are applied in realistic applications is that biometric information is stored in a biometric reference, meaning one or more stored biometric samples, biometric templates or biometric models attributed to a biometric data subject and used as the object of biometric comparison
Regarding the point that biometric algorithms are challenged to distinguish individuals, it should be emphasised that, when the only source of information is a set of facial images from monozygotic twins, biometric face recognition systems struggle to the same extent as humans when distinguishing between them

Summary

Introduction

The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) together with the Spanish Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (aepd) has published a white paper entitled ‘14 Misunderstandings with regard to Biometric Identification and Authentication’.1 The paper looks at biometric identification and verification2,3 and focuses on fingerprint and face recognition. The collected biometric information (e.g., the image of a fingerprint) is processed following standard‐defined procedures and the result of that process is stored in data records called signatures, patterns or templates. The system behaviour of biometric systems that are applied in realistic applications is that biometric information is stored in a biometric reference, meaning one or more stored biometric samples, biometric templates or biometric models attributed to a biometric data subject and used as the object of biometric comparison.

Results

Conclusion