Biometrics, privacy work together

Privacy has had a rare victory in one of Australia's most successful public biometric roll-outs by health insurer Australian Health Manangement, which has registered more than 13 000 members to its voice verification platform since last December, reports Computerworld.

While biometric advocates claim the technology improves security through voice and face recognition, fingerprint identification, and advanced techniques such as deep-palm reading and retinal scanning, the security-conscious argue stolen biometric data is irreplaceable.

Australian Health Management operations manager, Melinda Charlesworth, said: "The potential threat of an unauthorised person passing the [100-point] security checks to access customer records is much higher in our industry, because it's often a close relation, like an ex-spouse, who knows the victim's name, address, and date of birth," Charlesworth said.

The Malaysian Immigration Department is in the process of issuing the I-Kad to 66 000 plus foreign students, as part of efforts to issue foreigners who are legally working or studying there with the hi-tech, chip-embedded card, the Malaysian Star Online reports.

In an initial move, the card would be issued to international students. To make it easier for the authorities to identify, the student cards would come in a light green colour.

The new I-Kad, which will replace the current student cards issued to all international students, will have 17 security features, such as embossing and engraving, to prevent forgery.  

Researchers have used nanotechnology to create transparent transistors and circuits, a step that promises a broad range of applications, from e-paper and flexible colour screens for consumer electronics, to smart cards and heads-up displays in auto windshields, Physorg.com reports.

The transistors are made of single "nanowires," or tiny cylindrical structures that were assembled on glass or thin films of flexible plastic.

"The nanowires themselves are transparent, the contacts we put on them are transparent and the glass or plastic substrate is transparent," said David Janes, a researcher at Purdue University's Birck Nanotechnology Centre and a professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Dakshina Kannada police have introduced electronic beat, or 'e-beat', in 25 of their 28 police stations, according to daijiworld.com.

A major advantage of e-beat is it thrusts greater accountability on the police constables assigned to a particular beat. Until now, the constables working either on day-beat or night-beat used to sign and enter the time in the point books kept at pre-designated places.

Police superintendent Lokesh Kumar told The Hindu newspaper that the district police had put the system through a trial-run for three months to find out its shortcomings, if any. "We experienced problems with a few card readers issued to beat constables, as well as RFID tags fixed at pre-designated points. The faulty equipment has been replaced," he said.