Using Your Body to Prove Who You Are
ANNOUNCER: Today on CNNdotCOM...</s>JAMES HATTORI, CO-HOST: Using your body to prove who you are. But will these sci-fi sensors lead to an invasion of the body- snatchers?</s>SHARON COLLINS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And all of a sudden, a criminal takes my finger to get my fingerprint to gain access to my ATM machine.</s>HATTORI: And putting the zip back in your PC.</s>MARY KATHLEEN FLYNN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What can I do to make my computer run faster?</s>HATTORI: Tune-up tips, a do-it-yourself guide for turning your computer into a well-oiled machine. Plus, online roots.</s>MAYA ANGELOU: Everybody knows something about the African heritage.</s>HATTORI: All things African, a Web site that captures the black experience worldwide. All that and more, ahead on CNNdot</s>COM. ANNOUNCER: CNNdotCOM with Perri Peltz and James Hattori.</s>HATTORI: Welcome to CNNdotCOM. I'm James Hattori. Perri's off this week. Forget your computer password, throw away your bank access card. There's technology emerging that could soon make them a thing of the past. It's called biometrics, and while this new way of identification may be convenient, correspondent Sharon Collins tells us it's not without controversy. Let's go to technology that's straight of Bond -- James Bond.</s>UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: ID confirmed.</s>COLLINS (voice-over): What you used to only see in the movies could soon become a big part of your life. It's called biometrics, identification by body part.</s>ACTRESS: ID confirmed.</s>COLLINS: Here at the National Biometrics Test Lab in San Jose, California, it takes not a password but the right face to open a door. It's just one of the many ways to prove who you are through biometrics.</s>DR. JIM WEYMAN, NATIONAL BIOMETRICS TEST LAB: Right now, the computer is taking a picture of your iris. When you get it in focus, we'll take a picture of it.</s>COLLINS: Dr. Jim Weyman (ph) heads the lab, where equipment like this iris scan is put to the test.</s>WEYMAN: You see, the computer has found the iris. Here's the pupil. This white part is called the sclera.</s>COLLINS (on camera): So this is kind of like a fingerprint.</s>WEYMAN: Exactly. But instead of using the information of the ridges on the fingers, we're using the information in the bands and the styrations (ph) of the pupil -- of the iris region here of the eye. The information in these bands will be compared against the bands of previously stored irises by you to find out if you're the same person that you claim to be. Are you the person who previously enrolled using this iris in our system? Do we know you as you?</s>COLLINS (voice-over): Like most of our body, the iris is very different person to person. It can be your iris, your finger, the shape of your hand, your voice.</s>WEYMAN: Biometrics.</s>COLLINS: The beauty of biometrics is that you are your password. You can't forget it, it can't be stolen, and no one else has it -- which is why the government started using it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MAN: OK, let me see your right</s>COLLINS: Biometrics is quickly becoming the weapon of choice against welfare fraud in eight states, including California. New York's welfare program has saved close to $300 million since it began using fingerprint scans five years ago. It's cut down on recipients who were double-dipping for benefits or collecting welfare checks from multiple locations.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Someday, a computer chip in your car will recognize your unique mark.</s>COLLINS: In the area of credit and debit cards, fraud amounts to $3 billion a year, so companies like MasterCard plan to have you scan your fingerprint when you make a purchase.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we'll do is, we'll just get an image from you of your finger.</s>COLLINS: Identicator is one of the leading companies in biometrics. The technology began as a way to guarantee high-level access to secret government installations. But as the costs came down, the applications began to spread.</s>PAUL COLLIER, IDENTICATOR: I'd say the least expensive and most applicable to a consumer, if you want to get into the biometrics world and see what it can do for you, would be some of the computer products. To be able to log onto your computer, not using a password but using your fingerprint, or using your facial recognition, it's very inexpensive. I think the average product right now is about $100.</s>COLLINS: And if you want to avoid these lines when you travel internationally, Immigration and Naturalization has come up with something called the INS Pass. It's a system you can use at eight North American airports. (on camera): It only takes about 15 minutes, and all you need is a passport. After that, the agency uses both hand geometry and fingerprinting to identify you in the future.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go ahead and put your hand back in.</s>COLLINS (voice-over): A hand geometry unit takes more than 90 measurements of your palm and fingers. Those dimensions are then stored on a smart card and the computer. (on camera): Once you enter the United States, here's how the INS Pass works. (voice-over): You take the card and slide it into the INS Pass machine. The unit then scans your hand. If your data matches that on file, you get to bypass the long lines at the end of an international trip. Disney World has a similar procedure for season pass holders. There's no waiting, just a show of hands into their two-finger geometry system. But not everyone thinks this is a good idea.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In May of this year, I will have to submit my thumbprint, and I don't want to do that.</s>COLLINS: In the state of Georgia, there have been protests over a requirement to have your fingerprint scanned to get a driver's license.</s>BARRY STEINHARDT, AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION: I fear that we're going to live in what amounts to a surveillance society. It's not going to be the evil Big Brother of "1984," but I fear that we are rapidly moving towards a society where all of our movements, all of our transactions, all of our business is known to somebody out there. And profiles of us will be easy to assemble.</s>COLLINS: Barry Steinhardt is an expert on privacy issues in technology for the American Civil Liberties Union. He believes biometrics is advancing faster than the legal issues it will impact.</s>STEINHARDT: Need to be very careful about the power of what this technology, and especially the power of DNA. It's iris scans or fingerprints today, but it'll be DNA tomorrow. (</s>BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "SNEAKERS") UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: NSA uses the same technology.</s>COLLINS: And even eight years ago, when the movie "Sneakers" came out, people were already thinking about ways to trick the system. (</s>BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "SNEAKERS") ROBERT REDFORD, ACTOR: My voice is my passport. Verify me.</s>COLLINS (on camera): What if it becomes so popular, and we're using a fingerprint for an ATM machine, and all of a sudden a criminal takes my finger to get my fingerprint to gain access to my ATM machine?</s>WEYMAN: Oh, you're worried that the finger -- that your finger's going to be cut off.</s>COLLINS: Well, yes.</s>WEYMAN: That makes good stuff for spy thrillers, doesn't it? There've been a number of systems fielded that actually test for the liveness of the fingerprint before -- the liveness of the finger before they accept the fingerprint. Not all systems do that, but that certainly can be incorporated in the systems.</s>COLLINS: You might know that and I might know that, but what if the criminal doesn't? (voice-over): So ready or not, it appears biometrics is here to stay.</s>COLLIER: I think you'll begin to see this on your cell phones. You'll begin to see this on cable boxes for parental controls. You'll begin to see this in your alarm system in your home for your enunciator panel, so that you can turn the alarm off in the case of a false alarm. Your automobile. We're already beginning to see that in some systems. It boggles the mind.</s>UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: ID confirmed.</s>COLLINS: But we'll leave you with this warning. As biometrics becomes commonplace, remember, it does work through a computer. And if that computer is having a bad day...</s>WEYMAN: Now what's wrong?</s>COLLINS: ... you may have a tough time proving that you are you.</s>WEYMAN: I screwed with it, I screwed with it. Aggggh!</s>HATTORI: Here's a use of biometrics you might want to be aware of. Some casinos are using facial recognition technology to pick out known cheaters at gambling tables. And sorry, putting on a poker face won't protect you. We'll be right back.</s>ANNOUNCER: Just ahead on THE DOT, using the World Wide Web for a worldwide view of the black perspective.</s>DARREL ROBERTS, PRESIDENT AND COO, AFRICANA.COM: Educators all around the country and around the world, you know, they have their African-American lesson plan sort of done for them.</s>ANNOUNCER: Out of Africa, when CNNdotCOM continues.