Exploring Technology to Protect Passengers With Fingerprint or Retina Scans is an interesting article on biometrics and airport security. This article appeared in the New York Times just eight days after the attacks on the World Trade Center. Author Barnaby J. Feder tells the reader that due to the recent attacks, there had been an increase in sales of fingerprint recognition, facial structure detection software and retina scanning equipment. He noted, that though most stocks had felt a significant loss following the attacks, there was however an increase in sales and profits in companies in the field of biometrics. Airplane travel is one noteworthy example of how society has been increasingly presented with the difficult question of security vurses privacy. Although retina scans have proven to be one of the most successful methods in determining an individual’s identity, some civil libertarian advocates argue that this technology leaves little for health privacy of the private citizen. Without becoming too political or referring to the Bill of Rights for validation, this article can be examined with a simpler yet finer sociological approach. It could be said that, it is the security of the group that relies on the amount of privacy that the individual is willing to give up. One may argue, that the Patriot Act fallowing September eleventh not only created a safer country but one with far less individual privacy.
-Andrew McCasland
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/19/nyregion/19TECH.html
