Biometrics and Personal Privacy Biometrics refers to the automatic identification of a person based on his or her anatomical or behavioral characteristics or traits, such as his or her fingerprint, hand, face, and iris or speech recognition. The purpose of most biometric systems is to authenticate a person’s identity. Biometric systems, such as automatic finger print identification systems are widely used in forensics for criminal identification. The Progress in biometric sensors and matching algorithms has led to the development of biometric authentication for civilian and government use. Some systems are voluntary to individuals to save time at airports and even retail stores. Some are required for security purposes for work or access to locked facilities. However, along with convenience and security comes concern for privacy. Biometric systems collect more information than just the user’s finger prints, retina or other data. All the users’ identification information needs to be stored in a database authorized by the system. Therefore, with any biometrical system there are security risks such as a biometrical attack on the system from identity thieves or hackers. A big risk to privacy comes from the governments use for surveillance. Face recognition technology. This could allow for covert, remote, mass capture and identification of images. The photos may end up in a database and this is an invasion of privacy. Biometric fingerprinting would be less invasive and used for criminal situations. It also would be more convenient to use at times. Retina biometrics is highly accurate and is used for identity cards, passports and many security related detectors. I would not be willing to sign up for a voluntary program because I don’t see a positive outcome for doing so. I think if the system was secure enough were there were no worries of terrorists or of hackers, it wouldn’t be necessary to volunteer for it to begin with. On the other hand, if there was news about how effective and efficient it was then I may consider it. I would work at a job that required that required me to use a biometric input device on