Legal News

Biometric verification: doubters say 'devil is in the details'

By Richard Binder

Lawyers are expressing both skepticism and criticism about the concept of using biometric data, such as fingerprints and retina scans, to verify if employees are eligible to work in the United States. 

Senator Charles Schumer, who also chairs the Senate Immigration Subcommittee, said that he would like to pursue a biometric workplace verification tool that would replace or enhance the current E-Verify system, which he says doesn't work.  He stated at a hearing last Tuesday that a new system needs to rely "upon objective, rather than subjective, criteria to prove identity and legal status."

Critics don't believe biometrics is the answer. Professor Catherine Fisk, who teaches labor and employment at the University of California, Irvine School of Law, is one such skeptic.  "Is every person going to be required, as a condition of employment, to be fingerprinted?" she said. "I find it hard to imagine that most Americans wouldn't consider that a massive invasion of their privacy."

Full story here.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on July 28, 2009 (boomark / email).