Systems of Biometric Control

Matthew Stender, Adam Harvey Biometric sensors are used by
governments, corporations and even NGOs to perceive unique
identifiers for individual humans. This session will parse the
distinction between two types of biometric traits (hard and soft) -
those that we possess and those that we perform - and discuss how
both are increasingly being used as unique identifiers to catalogue
our whereabouts, categorize our actions and customize our
experiences. These automated biometric systems, created by humans
are increasing religating humanity ‘out of the loop’.
Simultaneously, humans are unable to hide or escape from the view
of machines. Without oversight or accountability, humans changes
the way they operate in the physical space, eroding their agency.
The ethnographic and anthropological implications  of the
biometric shape more than individual behavior and can even lead to
a “flattening of culture.” From data modeling leads to replication
of discrimination to biometric product design doesn’t account for
non-able bodied persons, technology will increasingly leave its
fingerprint on human society. Finally, forced participation in
these systems brings up philosophical questions as to what
constitutes human rights in the 21st century. Beyond traditional
access control mechanisms (like an undergoing an eye scan to enter
into a secure facility), collective biometrics now give those in
power the capacity for predictive analysis through future modeling.
Micromovements can now be disambiguated to tell stories about our
human bodies that we ourselves may be unaware of.