Governments across Europe are increasingly seeking means of improving citizens’s safety and security while safeguarding civil liberties to protect against the ever-present threat of terrorism. Adopting biometrics is one trend that Europe has in recent years resorted to solve such security threats.
Europe has a positive outlook on biometrics and expects a wide range of benefits from electronic identity technologies, according to research carried out by Vanson Bourne on behalf of global IT services group LogicaCMG, released.
The survey was conducted amongst 500 consumers in U.K., the Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and the Czech Republic respectively during April 2006. It finds that convenience and safety when traveling and managing financial; transaction are now important for Europeans than perceived privacy issues. On average, 84 percent of European would be happy to have their fingerprint taken and iris scanned when traveling abroad as they believe this will speed up and ease the travel procedures. 88 percent believe that biometric technology will reduce identity theft while 85 percent believe it will reduce financial fraud.
France leads on the acceptance of biometric with 92 percent of respondents happy to have a fingerprint and iris scan when traveling abroad. By comparison Czech Republic is most reluctant with only 67 percent. Portugal leads the anticipation of a reduction in identity theft and financial fraud with a staggering 95 percent in both cases expecting biometrics to help cut these crimes.
Tim Brew, director of LogicaCMG’s electronic identity practice outlines the drivers for such high levels of acceptance: “Accuracy and the customer’s belief in the accuracy has been the number one issue. Continuous development and the underlying technology have seen significant improvements from the early days of biometrics solutions together with a much improved and less intrusive experience for users. Consequently, the focus has moved to the real benefits of these systems and how real world solutions are delivered. We have reached a tipping point where most Europeans now highly rate the advantages of biometrics in terms of safety and convenience.”
71 percent of respondents would feel more secure using a fingerprint or biometric identity card to pay for goods and services abroad. Again Portugal leads Europe with 85 percent whilst in the Netherlands acceptance drops to 46 percent.
Tim Brew explains the reasons for some of these national differences: “Portugal currently has five different national cards so the Portuguese are well aware of why their government has such a desire to integrate these into one single document and what benefits such a programmed will yield.
Tim said that there has always been high public awareness of biometric technologies and this has played a key role in acceptance. As far back as 1996 there have been studies from the US showing similar levels of acceptance of fingerprint technology: 87 percent in the case of using fingerprints as a legitimate form of identity verification and 77 percent believing fingerprints were justified in establishing identity when cashing large personal cheques.
“Much of the overwhelming acceptance across Europe can be explained as the regions ‘catching up’ and becoming more aware of the security conveniences benefits enabled through biometric technology. Any interaction between man and machine can be potential application for biometrics and this ubiquitous nature may well prove to be a further catalyst throughout the continent for the uptake of biometrics,” Brew stated.
Other studies have also revealed that the use of biometrics technology is on the rise not only is Europe but worldwide. According to a research conducted by Ponemon Institute for Unisys, 66 percent of consumers worldwide favour biometrics as the ideal method to combat fraud and identity theft as compared to other methods such as smart cards and tokens.
According to the study, the preference of biometrics in Asia Pacific is as high as 68 percent, after North America (71 percent) and Europe (69 percent).
Industry leaders are of the opinion that APAC market is going to emerge as one of the largest market for biometrics in the near future.
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