Biometrics Institute celebrates 15 year anniversary

The Biometrics Institute recently announced its 15-year anniversary of promoting the responsible use of biometrics as an independent international user group.

“I joined the Biometrics Institute in May 2002 and what an amazing journey it has been,” said Isabelle Moeller, the Biometrics Institute Chief Executive, “and what great foresight its founding members had when they then predicted that biometrics was to be in common use in the future and that the Institute wanted to be ahead of the game, technically as well as in terms of privacy and commercial uses.”

Moeller added: “Now that biometrics are becoming more ubiquitous and are being used in a wide variety of not only government but also consumer applications, our role of guiding organizations on best-practice for the responsible use of biometrics is even more important.”

The Biometrics Institute currently has 213 membership organizations representing close to 900 individuals from 26 countries.

The Biometrics Institute Limited was registered as a not-for-profit organisation in Australia on October 11, 2001 and opened an office in London, UK in July 2011. It was set up as a user group giving organizations using biometrics more power in setting the direction of the organization, however suppliers and academia form another important component of the membership.

“When I secured the funding from the Australian government for the establishment of the Biometrics Institute, it was originally suggested to set up a testing and evaluation organization,” recalls Dr Ted Dunstone, the founder of the Biometrics Institute and Head of its Biometrics Vulnerability Assessment Expert Group (BVAEG), “but the members decided that user education and promotion of responsible use is what the industry needed the most.”

The Biometrics Institute is governed by its Board of Directors representing a majority of user members. Its current chairperson is working for the Australian Attorney-General’s and other Directors are from Heathrow Airport UK, Wells Fargo Bank USA and the UK Home Office.

Article Topics

biometric application  |  biometrics  |  Biometrics Institute  |  consumer  |  Dr. Ted Dunstone  |  government  |  Isabelle Moeller