IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2016 - 59

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Smartphones,
Biometrics, and a
Brave New World
Peter Corcoran and Claudia Costache

T

he use of biometrics to identify people goes back more than 130 years
to the work of Alphonse Bertillon, an
early pioneer from the French Police
force who developed an anthropometric identification system for suspects in the 1880s. In popular fiction, Mark Twain wrote in Life on the Mississippi, also in
the 1880s, about how a murderer was identified using
fingerprint identification.
In more recent times biometric technology has
become increasingly associated with Uberveillance and
tracking of the general populace. In particular, sciencefiction literature has tended to explore many fascinating
dystopian futures. Popular movies based on these tales
have often been box-office successes and work their
way into the popular consciousness.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MTS.2016.2593266
Date of publication: 7 September 2016

september 2016

∕

In this article we take a somewhat contrarian viewpoint - that biometrics may, in fact, offer solutions to
many of today's cyber-security problems that appear with
increasing frequency in prime-time news. This outcome
relies on the individual asserting ownership over his or
her personal biometrics. A strange hypothesis, you might
think - but let us start with the disruptive technology that
could enable this transition in how we view and use biometrics. Let's begin by considering the smartphone on
your desk, in your hand, or in your coat pocket.

The Age of the Smartphone
In recent years the smartphone has experienced widespread global adoption across all demographics, with the
most rapid market growth in countries such as China and
India. In parallel, the technology has undergone rapid
commoditization to the point where an entry-level, fully
functional device can be sold profitably for less than
$100. This allows the opening of new less-developed markets such as in Africa and Asia. Ericsson's annual

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

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