This report is intended to encourage discussion and debate regarding the development of legally and ethically sound policies and systems. It is not meant to be a comprehensive and elaborated study given the scope of the assignment. Biometrics and identity management are becoming increasingly important in securing European society. This is due to the strong growth of mobility accelerated by globalisation and geopolitical changes, such as immigration and the digital economy. We are finding biometrics in a broad range of applications, such as the e-Passport, automated border control, immigration control, law enforcement, financial services, various smartphone-based applications and video surveillance. New technical possibilities are turning into innovative solutions in ever shorter time frames, sometimes exceeding societies' ability to adapt those solutions in a responsible and thoughtful way in the democratic processes and law-making. It is the digitisation of our society that provides new ways of living, but also creates new challenges in maintaining security and privacy in a transparent way. In this context we can consider biometrics as an ultimate exponent of these developments: systems with improved computing powers, unlimited connectivity and highly sophisticated sensors and algorithms are now capable of performing large-scale identification, verification and authentication functions for a variety of purposes, whether overtly or covertly. This report describes why biometrics confronts us with profound challenges regarding the protection of citizens' data and associated privacy concerns due to the collection and sharing of such data by private entities (such as search engines, credit registrars, data brokers, web shops, website trackers and optimisers, social media, chambers of commerce, health care institutions) and public entities (such as tax authorities, public administrations, driver licence authorities, social care agencies, and police and justice authorities).
