Imagining the Biometric Future: Debates Over National Biometric Identification in Israel

Abstract

ABSTRACTFrom 2008 to 2017, the Israeli Ministry of Interior's attempts to create a national biometric identification system comprised of a digital database and ‘smart' national ID cards containing the index fingerprints and facial recognition data of all Israeli citizens and residents generated significant political debate. Usually, security is offered as a justification for biometric identification. In the Israeli debate, security was foundational to both claims for and against the system. Security is a major priority in Israel, and by putting it at the center of their arguments, opponents and proponents tried to lay claim to one of the most powerful legitimating tools in Israeli policymaking. They did so by articulating sociotechnical imaginaries of the system that both drew upon aspirations for security, yet offered contrasting visions of the biometric future. These imaginaries existed in a dialectical relationship; both sides used practices of imagining the future to influence the system's policy framework and technological design, and to contest the meaning of security itself by defining it and its relationship to biometric IDs and databases in different ways. Ultimately, the system's implementation in 2017 entailed a legislative and technological compromise that incorporated both sides’ visions of the future and definitions of security.