Biometric Technologies Trends in Relation to Fundamental Rights Protection in European Union Security Policy: With a Particular Approach to DNA Technology

Abstract

Biometric data represent a challenge for security systems in the actual global world. Now, new technologies help us to identify persons using this new biometric technologies, using for example fingerprint/palm print identification, iris identification, face recognition or DNA technology. However, we need to respect fundamental rights when we are using these technologies. In this sense we need to focus on proportionality to limit the use of these technologies when they are necessary in order to guarantee public or private security but with respect to fundamental rights (rights to integrity, image, data protection, etc.).In this paper we present that the advances of these biometric technologies and their use have as a challenge the use of them in our security systems in order to respect fundamental rights.Really, using the human face as a key to security, biometric face recognition technology, and particularly DNA technology have received significant attention in the past several years due to its potential for a wide variety of applications in security policy.