Advantages and Disadvantages of Biometrics

Advantages of Biometrics

The advantages of biometrics are that it is based on who you are as opposed to what you have and what you know, such as ID cards or passwords. Human trait recognition and identification based on who you are, that is, biometrics is far less susceptible to:

·         Duplication

·         Error

·         Mistakes

·         Fraud,

·         Forgery

·         Inconvenience

Disadvantages of Biometrics

While biometric technologies are on the upswing and their use is becoming widespread because of the advantages we have outlined above, biometric technologies also have some disadvantages:

·         Limitations: Because these technologies apply to human beings, they are affected and are limited by many situations that may affect the individual. For example, fingerprint technology may not be effective if the subject has dirty, deformed, or cut hands; iris technology may not be effective if the subject has a bad eye; and voice technology may be affected by infections. Also background noise can interfere with voice recognition systems.

·         Affordability: Because biometric technologies are new technologies, they tend to be rather expensive without widespread use. For example, facial and voice recognition and iris technologies are still not yet affordable.

·         Cannot replace a biometric that has been lost or misappropriated.

·         Once a biometric has been compromised, it cannot be made right again.

·         Biometrics evolves and degrades over time and requires constant updates of the reference biometric.