Biometrics and the NIS

David Moss over at the Register has been exploring some of the figures on the reliability of the fingerprint, facial recognition and iris biometric technologies that will underpin the UK's national ID card system.

"Until the 16th century, educated opinion, as codified by Ptolemy, held that the Earth is at the centre of the universe. Then along came Copernicus.

On 29 June 2009, the Identity & Passport Service (IPS) published their latest paper on the National Identity Service (NIS). According to Safeguarding Identity (http://dematerialisedid.com/PDFs/13439_Safeguarding_Identity_w_opt.pdf) (pdf), "the vision for the NIS is that it will become an essential part of everyday life, underpinning interactions and transactions between individuals, public services and businesses and supporting people to protect their identity" (para.3.32).

Early adopter

Placing the NIS at the centre of social interaction like this makes IPS about 92 million miles wide of the mark."

It's a nice summary of the numbers.