Breaking biometric siloes via dialogue: the Thoughtful Biometrics Workshop

The existing siloes of biometric technology providers, academia, civil society and policy makers will be shaken and mixed to get a better understanding of one another’s areas, concerns and opportunities via the Thoughtful Biometrics Workshop a one-day virtual, conference on 16 March 2023.

As a ‘co-created’ event, participants even get to decide on what and how they discuss the issues by coproducing the agenda at the beginning of the day via Open Space Technology from Open Space World.

Organizer Kaliya ‘Identity Woman’ Young says the idea is very much to break the barriers between the factions, to “get the humans who care about (in different ways) this technology together in a room using this innovative format that we have had so much success with at the Internet Identity Workshop.”

The event is sponsored by AI vision specialist Paravision, fingerprint file generators Lakota Software, ethical ID advocates ID2020 and Simprints, a non-profit for biometrics in development and humanitarian settings.

“The goal is to get people who are coming form really different perspectives to dialogue,” says Young, author of Domains of Identity on the distinctions between where and how identity is used.

“And maybe – just maybe – it will get to a place where there is an opening for a breakthrough around finding common ground and maybe working together on common goals like reasonable regulation.”

Young says she was turned off biometrics by seeing promotional materials from biometrics vendors at trade shows and became wary of the technologies from reading academic literature and available books. Only by engaging in conversation with the experts and ask questions did she get clarity. This is what she hopes to replicate at the workshop.

“When I went to Identity Week America in Fall 2021 and met the Paravision CEO and talked to him, it became clear there really were companies who cared and wanted to be ethical in their implementations and usage. That there was a willingness, in fact a desire for reasonable regulation.”

Nobody wants to live in a police surveillance state, but there is misunderstanding and outdated knowledge on all sides.

Potential topics

There are no set speakers, no agendas, no fixed panels. Instead, the format reflects what participants want to discuss on the day. It provides a space for participants to explain technologies and policy and challenge other areas.

The registration process points to potential areas such as the implications of age-appropriate design codes and potential for biometric age verification; bias; implications around the capture of biometrics during the use of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality; biometrics in immigration; the privacy-preserving potential of mobile driving licences.

Biometric Update will bring readers coverage of the event following its conclusion.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  conferences  |  digital identity  |  Kaliya Young  |  Thoughtful Biometrics Workshop