IndianEra > Editor's pick > India 5th Worst in Biometric Usage, Globally: Research

Biometric everywhere! Thanks to the digital revolution that made identification and verification procedures easier.

But there lies a negative side of this trend, where the question is ‘how the biometric data collected by organizations and governments all across is being used?’

The latest study by a technology researcher ‘Comparitech’ has analysed 50 nations worldwide on their utilization of biometric data.

The research has categorized nations with scores out of 25, with high scores indicating ‘extensive and invasive use’ of biometrics and/or surveillance and low scores showing ‘better restrictions and regulations’ on the same.

Collection and Storage of Biometrics by Country

Surprisingly, India was featured in the list of top 5 countries with the highest scores, next to China, Malaysia, Pakistan and USA.

Countries Worst in Biometric Usage

Country Score (Out of 25) Rank
China 24 1
Malaysia 21 2
Pakistan 21 3
USA 20 4
India, Indonesia, The Philippines and Taiwan 19 5

“India also has a national biometric database, the largest in the world. This is known as the Aadhaar. However, they avoid a maximum score because law enforcement isn’t permitted to access to the database,” the research firm said in a statement.

Countries Best in Biometric Usage

Country Score (Out of 25) Rank
Ireland 11 1
Portugal 11 2
Cyprus 12 3
UK 12 4
Romania 12 5

“Joint with Portugal, Ireland succeeds in protecting biometric data by only having a small database that includes criminal profiles, having extra safeguards for employee biometric data (e.g. consent is not always enough, which goes beyond GDPR requirements). It isn’t part of the Schengen Agreement so doesn’t take biometrics upon entry,” reads a statement by the surveyor.

All the countries have been analysed in terms of their dealing with biometric data collected from passports, IDs, bank accounts, mobile apps, nationwide biometric databases, CCTV cameras, workplaces, storage, etc.

Stay tuned for more interesting news updates about India.

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Posted by IndianEra, 05/12/2019