The importance of using biometric technology

To begin, we will define biometric technology as a recognition method based on a person’s physiological or behavioural features. As a matter of fact, in iGEO we are working to incorporate biometrics into our software, so that technicians may access their profile by using their fingerprint or, even, their face or eye. 

After all, iGEO is more than a single app. Our own clients define it as the platform that provides them with all the work tools needed for their businesses to grow and improve their invoicing day by day.

Coming back to biometric technology, in general, this process is usually applied to human beings, who are recognised and identified by their physical appearance, their voice, their gait, etc. Nowadays, technology has allowed to automatise and perfect these biometric recognition processes, so that they may be aimed at multiple applications and goals, specially those related to security.

This biometric system must present some specific features, such as the following:

• Universality (all individuals have them)
• Singularity or univocality (they differentiate each person)
• Continuity throughout time and in different environmental conditions
• Quantitatively measurable

The technology used by biometrics must respect these aspects:

• Performance (level of accuracy)
• Acceptance by users
• Resistance to fraud and usurpation
• No need to be remembered

Security improvements (compared to current circumstances)

Nowadays, our devices’ security is achieved mostly by the means of passwords containing numbers, letters, and symbols. Obviously, given the great number of sessions and accounts that we have in all the apps and programmes we use every day, sometimes a specific pattern is followed so that they are not forgotten.

Remembering all passwords is impossible. Thus, many users work with software products that store each of them.

However, when applying biometric technology, there is no need to use any passwords. This fact improves the effectiveness of our data’s security. Showing our eye or putting our finger on a reader to access any app of our choice is translated into effort and time savings.

Usability

Technology evolves constantly and continuously, so falling behind in this matter may entail a great disadvantage in relation with rival companies. 

Nonetheless, biometrics doesn’t require any advanced knowledge or a long adaptation period. To place your eye on a retinal scan, for instance, you don’t need prior training or to be an expert: you just need to do it. This makes implementation much easier, and improves businesses’ efficiency.

Accessible to everyone

As stated by the definition of biometric features, universality is one of its essential factors. Everyone has them, so nobody is excluded by this kind of technologies.

The combination of these three advantages of biometrics contributes to anyone being able to use this technology with no prior knowledge or any external devices beyond the installation of the appropriate readers by the company.

Enhancing the security of access control

One of biometrics’ most extended application is access control, which may be either physical (in buildings or restricted areas) or logical (in IT equipments, mobile phones, tables, etc.). Nowadays, in Spain, the fingerprint is the most used method, thanks to its high level of maturity, which allows to offer competitive prices.

Sometimes, in sensitive areas with greater security, controls are performed through a combination of techniques, which is another benefit to be discussed later on. These may be both biometric (this method is known as ‘multimodal biometrics’), or two different identification factors, such as fingerprint reading along with a password or a card. This reinforcement allows to know who or how they are and what they know or have.

Presence monitoring

Traditional methods to monitor employees’ access to and exit from their workplace use a code or personal card. One of the disadvantages presented by this kind of technique is that it is easy to commit irregularities: simply by sharing them with a colleague, this measure may be voided.

Biometric technology contributes to ending this type of practices through an additional verification that is much harder to bypass. In these cases, the most widely used technique is fingerprint reading, although there is a less popular one that employs the geometry of the user’s hand.

Combination with other technologies

By itself, biometrics achieves high levels of security; however, when combined with other technologies, it may offer greater advantages.

For example, NFC, which is often used to make payments with a mobile phone, joins biometrics to verify the user’s identity. In health facilities, wristbands with NFC are employed to indicate the medicines that must be administered to patients.

Another possible combination is with smart cards, which store within their chip the biometric pattern used in comparisons to guarantee a successful authentication. This system is known as ‘match on card‘.

Performing operations remotely

The advantages of biometrics not only focus on a greater security, but also they offer benefits that affect directly the lives of users and employees. This is the case of the possibility to perform operations remotely.

These procedures are usually quite bothersome, given they are slow and boring, they and require a great amount of time. Thanks to biometric technology, users may be identified without them being present in a public institution, which reduces unnecessary trips and, in the end, improves the Administration’s efficiency.

Increase in privacy

Biometrics contribute to increasing security when transferring clients’ personal information, because data are encrypted using a unique, private code. Thanks to the difficulty entailed by forging biometric features, the privacy of customers and final users is guaranteed. 

This competitive advantage may lead users to choose companies that use biometric technology over those who don’t, given that privacy is more and more valued by society.

Your corporate image will be improved

Developing new technologies is an aspect on which companies must always focus. Innovation and investments in research and development lead to technological progress being optimally achieved.

Employing new technologies, whether biometric or of other kinds, yields great advantages for any business, such as increasing efficiency, enhancing security, and reducing the chances of internal fraud. Furthermore, these entities are usually linked to innovation and investments in research and development, which improve the company’s image and public perception.

Using biometrics isn’t something of the future; it is a technology currently used, whose upward trend is due to the great number of advantages it bears. For instance, Viafirma Documents is a software that implements this technology in its applications to profit from benefits like biometric signature, as well as from the security and protection it entails.

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