About Nesta

Nesta is an innovation foundation. For us, innovation means turning bold ideas into reality and changing lives for the better. We use our expertise, skills and funding in areas where there are big challenges facing society.

This Hot Topics event was a discussion on the value of biometrics and what it could mean for privacy.

The event featured an exhibition of wearable technologies from the Futures 10 collection. The audience was given the chance to engage with and challenge their conceptions of privacy, security and surveillance.

In an age when the death of passwords and privacy is declared daily, could our bodies become the ultimate passwords?

From our fingertips, eyes or faces to our heart rate, vein-pattern, bodily odour or even our knees and thoughts, biometrics are offering new ways of accurately identifying individuals and securing their personal information.

But how accurate are biometric measurements? Who owns the data and what is it being used for? Passwords can be changed, but what about our fingerprints or DNA - what happens when they are compromised? These are the questions our panel discussed.

Dr John Bustard explains how biometrics can be spoofed and how they could have an important role in our judicial system:

Professor Juliet Lodge on the advantages and vulnerabilities of biometrics:

Isabelle Moeller on establishing trust and promoting the responsible use of biometrics:

Speakers

Prof Juliet Lodge

Senior Analyst at AIMTECH, University of Leeds

Isabelle Moeller

Chief Executive, Biometrics Institute

Matthew Silverstone

CEO, Facebanx

Dr Peter Waggett

Programme Leader, IBM’s Emerging Technology Group

Dr John Bustard, Lecturer

Queen’s University Belfast, Centre for Secure Information Technologies.