Brain Scanning May Be Used In EU Security Checks

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from the Guardian: "Distinctive brain patterns could become the latest subject of biometric scanning after EU researchers successfully tested technology to verify identities for security checks. The experiments, which also examined the potential of heart rhythms to authenticate individuals, were conducted under an EU-funded inquiry into biometric systems that could be deployed at airports, borders and in sensitive locations to screen out terrorist suspects." The same article says that "The Home Office, meanwhile, has confirmed rapid expansion plans of automated facial recognition gates: 10 will be operating at major UK airports by August." I wonder what Bruce Schneier would have to say about such elaborate measures.

Comments

Re:Yet they won't even take simple measures

[mc1138]

There's a fundamental flaw here, you assume that it would be just a matter of targeting Saudis. All this would do is make a smarter terrorist. Recruit from other countries, forge credentials, smuggle people in, or better yet attack targets outside our borders. I'm not against racial profiling on a moral standpoint, I'm against it on an effectiveness standpoint, because, simply put, it doesn't work. And neither will this brain scanning thing, people will find ways around it.

Re:In Soviet America

[TaoPhoenix]

They seem determined to abuse technology as far as *the abuse* can go.

Phrase: "Quantum of Terror"

"Hmm. Our ID test runs on heartbeats, measured in a comfy lab with plush seats and chocolate mints. But we Don't Like This Guy.

" 'Hey, you're a terrorist!!' "
(Subject's heart races)
"Oh look, he fails. He MUST be a terrorist! Wheee!"

It's Schrodinger's Nightmare.

Re:thank you.

[commodore64_love]

>>>it ain't so bad.

"The right of the People to be secure in their persons...... unless a warrant has been issued by oath....." The government is violating your body by making intimate scans of your internal organs. You might as well tattoo numbers on your skin, because the offense against your property (your body) is as severe.