Biometrics has been sold to us as this magical technology that will replace ugly long passwords, but in reality it's just another pathetic surveillance operation.

I have wrote already many articles about why passwords are the only safe way to handle private information, and biometrics is just a plain rubbish scam basically:

• https://steemit.com/security/@profitgenerator/top-5-things-you-thought-were-secure-but-are-not-100-sp
• https://steemit.com/security/@profitgenerator/generate-secure-random-passwords-or-private-keys
• https://steemit.com/steemit/@profitgenerator/tutorial-secure-your-steemit-account

But hey, it's not like my words are going to stop this madness, so I have to warn people again, atleast the Steemit readers, given that they are pushing even further with this nonsense:

• http://bitsonline.com/credit-cards-read-fingerprints

They are basically working on a fingerprint reading credit card system. Because you know, you are too dumb to remember "1234" pin code. Which is still ridiculously thin security, but they even want that to take it away from you.

It's funny how these governments always imply that the citizens must have more and more security, but in reality, they have less and less. But the government sure keeps piling up on those ammunitions and weapons.

So no, only the government gets more power here, and you become more and more like a concentration camp prisoner, in this prison planet that it is.

Fingerprints

So what is so bad about those? Well first of all it's not private information. It's as if you set your password your birth date. That is not a secret, everyone can look it up.

The same way, fingerprints are already probably collected on citizens. I mean some smartphone apps essentially are already collecting fingerprints, and how hard would be for the government to database that? Or even some private criminals?

If this fingerprint scanning technology becomes widespread, then the entire science of forensics can be thrown out on the window. What will be the point of crime scene investigation with fingerprints? If everyone can basically just print out some 3D fingerprint and frame anybody for any crime. It will be a total Orwellian society.

So fingerprints are useless in terms of digital private information securing. The same goes for DNA, retina scan, face recognition, you name it. They are all rubbish. They provide 0 security, and it's just another way to invade your privacy and gather info on you.

Passwords

Passwords will remain forever the only secure way for private information. Unless they invent some mind reading device, which they are already working on:

• http://www.pcmag.com/feature/323668/10-mind-reading-tech-projects-that-might-freak-you-out/1

I guess we will all be wearing tinfoil hats from now on, literally. And this time it will be real. This is not a nutjub conspiracy theory anymore.

But until then, passwords will be the only secure way. Why? It's because for a secret to be really secret, it has to be unique, random, and unpredictable which is random.

Therefore we say that the password has to have entropy, where "entropy" is the unit of measurement of complexity, randomness.

This means that a 128 bit password is like rolling with a dice that has 2¹²⁸ sides, and you pick a number from this huge haystack.

Now of course a fingerprint has entropy too, it's essentially 1 out of 7.5 billion people, unique to you, and the total number of cellular combinations your finger can have is also probably in the 2¹²⁸ range too, but that is not the point. The point is that the fingerprint is already public, and you can't change if it gets compromised, unlike a password.

So it's as if you went the trouble of generating a 128 bit password, but then print it out, and glue it to your t-shirt so that everyone can see it, because you leave your fingerprint everyone you touch, so it's really trivial to guess that password.

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Sources:
https://pixabay.com

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