Promises, Social, and Ethical Challenges with Biometrics in Remote Identity Onboarding

AbstractIssuance of identity documents has commonly relied on face-to-face customer onboarding. Checking a person's physical presence and appearance has been an essential part of identity enrolling procedures to avoid the risk of identity forgery. Yet, several weaknesses, including face morphing attacks, have been identified in document issuing processes. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing international mobility, and a greater focus on user convenience, established onboarding rules and procedures have been disrupted. Solutions are being sought which would eliminate the barriers that stem from physical distance while offering at least equal or even better onboarding processes than in-person identity verification. Recently, novel remote onboarding solutions have appeared on the market. They vary from human-assisted video identification procedures to biometric-based automated verification procedures. The main social and ethical issues with biometrics in remote identity onboarding are (1) the risk of harming integrity of personal identity and misuse of it; (2) the risk of privacy invasion and function creep; (3) ethical issues that are raising from algorithmically driven actions and decisions; and (4) public perception and social acceptance of technology. These non-technical requirements need to be addressed in developing identity verification technologies based on biometrical algorithms and security techniques.