Biometrics between opacity and transparency

Serge Gutwirth, Law, Science, Technology & Society @ Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Abstract

The overall aim of the democratic constitutional state is to protect a social order in which the individual liberty of the citizen is a major concern. As a consequence the democratic constitutional state should guarantee simultaneously and paradoxically a high level of individual freedom and an order in which such freedom is made possible and guaranteed. Biometrics provide a strong and expressive example both of the necessity to address the issue of opacity and transparency and the complexity of the process. Indeed, the large scale use of biometrics does not only question the position of the individual in society, but it also alters the architecture or nature of this society as such.