Privacy Issues Associated with the Use of Biometrics in Higher Education: Risks and Best Practices

The emergence of biometric technologies offers organizations, including colleges and universities, potential new tools for confirming identity in contexts such as ensuring campus security, providing access to research facilities, checking patient identity, preventing fraud in test-taking, verifying student and employee login credentials, and tracking employee timekeeping, to name a few. Federal laws designed to protect individual privacy at institutions of higher learning do not impose specific requirements on entities utilizing biometric systems. Some state legislatures have started to address the issue. This presentation will identify some of the privacy issues that colleges and universities may want to consider as they contemplate integrating biometric systems into their current information collection and identity management protocol, along with some suggested best practices for minimizing legal risk based on existing laws and regulations.