Power and Panopticism-Biometrics This Work Essay

(2003) According to Gray, the current direction of surveillance in society is "toward omnipresence; more spaces are watched in more ways, capturing information about those within." (2003)

IV. BIOMETRICS in SOCIETY BECOMING PERVASIVE

The work of Karsten Weber entitled: "The Next Step: Privacy Invasions by Biometrics and ICT Implants" relates that there are various forms of biometric recognition technology which are based on both physiological and behavioral characteristics which include those as follows: (1) Facial thermogram; (2) Hand geometry; (3) Iris scanning; (4) Retinal scanning; (6) Vein checking; (7) Gait recognition; (8) keystroke analysis; (9) mouse dynamics; (10) signature analysis; and (11) Voice verification. (2006) Weber states that furnishing real life space with "the advantages of ICT" is likely to result in life be "overridden by the disadvantages of infringements into our privacy..." (2006) Weber relates that while biometrics for protection of the elderly individual who is in bad health is greatly positive however, should the biometrics have the capacity to make identification of individuals who approach the carrier, while this would be positive in terms of protection it is when alternatively viewed "a perfect means of supervision." (2006)

V. RESULTS of BIOMETRIC PANOPTICISM

Weber (2006) states that the "utilitarian and communitarian idea that the state must protect and propagate the common good of society is alien to libertarians as well as to liberals." When the individuals in society expect the government to provide for their protection what results is a restriction in the liberties of individuals in that society due to the trappings required in protecting individuals in society. Within the Libertarian framework, as well as to an extent in the framework of the liberal philosophy "only persons are right-holders; for them groups or society are metaphysical conceptions and cannot be rights-holders." (Weber, 2006) From this view, "...a mandatory use of ICT implants or biometrics to support a certain conception of a good life or the common good is morally illegitimate." (Weber, 2006) Weber states that if the state and its agents are truly obligated in protecting the rights of citizens then authorities of the state absolutely "must prohibit the private use of such technology, and, at the same time, must provide the protection" for those who desire to use the technology." (2006)

ANALYSIS & CONCLUSION

The questioning of the use of this type technology has been applied diligently and there are many and various angles that the use of biometrics may be viewed from in the process of attempting to disseminate what the results of this use might mean to human beings in the future. Foucault took this view and ran with it but for one who reads Foucault, they should be warned that resulting from that reading will be a figurative splinter in the mind of the reader that will fester and produce swells of fear and flushes of embarrassment at the thought of being so completely unveiled before the world-at-large. Indeed, it is this observational trepidation, which effectively indicates, in this brief study how panopticism throughout society and in both public and private space and place would render the individual to nothing more than an amoeba under a microscopic lens completely exposed and completely controlled in fearful adherence to the 'status quo'. Naturally, the entity holding the largest share of power is the individual who is looking through the lens at the very powerless held captive within the all-seeing eye of technological panopticism.

Bibliography

Weber, Karsten (2006) the Next Step: Privacy Invasions by Biometrics and ICT Implants Ubiquity -- Volume.....