Social costs of surveillance and the case of biometrics

Discussions of the developments in biometric measures have long recognised not only the increased technological capabilities they offer but also the particular impacts they pose for privacy. However, not unlike the case with other surveillance measures, the relatively narrow scope of this concept of privacy in relation to biometrics fails to take account of other important social impacts emanating from the significant developments in surveillance technologies over recent decades. Biometric measures - with their inherent links to the person´s body and unique, physical make-up - raise even more salient concerns with respect to the social implications of contemporary surveillance capabilities both for the individual and particular social groups. There is a body of academic analysis that does endeavour to address some of the sociological, ethical and political issues raised by the increased scale and scope of application of biometric technologies. However, this pales into comparative insignificance in relation to the far weightier but much narrower discussion of data protection and privacy issues from a legal perspective. This relative paucity of analysis of the specific social costs - and their particular features-emanating from the use of biometric measures belies their potential to arouse particular sensitivities amongst both citizens and civil society groups. This paper draws upon some of the available sociological literature as well as upon findings from an evaluation of the effectiveness of certain biometric technologies conducted as part of the EU FP7 IRISS project. The aim is to highlight those significant social costs that are associated with the wider and more intensive use of biometric measures within the contemporary surveillance context in which the citizen finds themselves.