TODAY’S GENER AL COUNSEL WINTER 202 0
Intellectual Property
Scattershot Regulation of Biometrics By Paul Keller
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iometric technologies are in use in many industries — travel, security, health care, automobile insurance, banking and other financial services — and across multiple industries in the field of workforce management, but the automotive industry is arguably the most advanced in its use of biometrics. Voice recognition technology is now a relatively common feature in automobiles, and the industry is rapidly adopting gesture recognition for in-car controls. Face and iris recognition technology will soon be widely used in verification of identity for vehicle entry. That same technology, with the addition of a camera directed at the driver, can be used to detect fatigue or drowsiness; and if it were incorporated
in an autonomous vehicle, it could take over operation if the driver shows signs of drowsiness. Biometrics to monitor the health of the driver have also been proposed. At the 2018 New York International Auto Show, Hyundai’s Genesis division introduced the Essentia Concept car, which incorporated fingerprint and facial recognition technology for vehicle entry. Unfortunately, the incorporation of a fingerprint recognition system does not guarantee that the vehicle cannot be stolen. In 2005, car thieves in Malaysia bypassed the fingerprint security measure by cutting off the end of the car owner’s index finger and using it to start the car. Currently, several insurance companies offer programs in which drivers
agree to install monitors in their cars in exchange for potentially lower insurance rates. The monitors track data to determine how safely the car has been operated by extrapolating the drivers’ behaviors from the performance of their vehicles. In contrast, biometric technologies give insurers the opportunity to monitor the drivers themselves. Biometric data can help determine who is operating a vehicle and that person’s physical or emotional state. For instance, State Farm has obtained patents for systems to assess a driver’s impairment, such as anxiety, intoxication, illness or injury. The rapid embrace of biometrics creates significant concerns relating to protecting the privacy of individuals. But uniformity of regulation is lacking