Abstract
Biometric technology was once the purview of security, with face recognition and fingerprint scans used for identification and law enforcement. This is no longer the case; biometrics is increasingly used for commercial and civil applications. Due to the widespread diffusion of biometrics, it is important to address the ethical issues inherent to the development and deployment of the technology. This article explores the burgeoning research on biometrics for non-security purposes and the ethical implications for organizations. This will be achieved by reviewing the literature on biometrics and business ethics and drawing from disciplines such as computer ethics to inform a more robust discussion of key themes. Although there are many ethical concerns, privacy is the key issue, with associated themes. These include definitions of privacy, the privacy paradox, informed consent, regulatory frameworks and guidelines, and discrimination. Despite the proliferation of biometric technology, there is little empirical research on applied biometrics and business ethics. As such, there are several avenues for research to improve understanding of the ethical implications of using this technology.
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Notes
This review was updated in October 2018.
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Acknowledgements
Feedback from the anonymous reviewers informed this updated version; I greatly appreciate their efforts and useful suggestions in improving the manuscript. I would also like to acknowledge the research assistance of Ishan Senarathna. I would also like to thank Nicholas Patterson and Matthew Warren for their feedback and guidance in the early stages.
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Funding for this research was provided by the Deakin Business School, Centre for Sustainable and Responsible Organisations (CSaRO).
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North-Samardzic, A. Biometric Technology and Ethics: Beyond Security Applications. J Bus Ethics 167, 433–450 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04143-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04143-6