Characteristic trade-offs in designing large-scale biometric-based identity management systems

Biometric-based identity management systems are deemed to be the new solution to address the challenges of global security and citizenship. While such systems do prove effective, the nature of biometric technology, the costs involved, and increasing threats to theft and loss of data bring with it a variety of other considerations that cannot be ignored. We approach such systems from the perspective of large-scale high-volume public deployments. We find that various characteristics of such deployments present a trade-off, where emphasis on one undermines the other. Such characteristic trade-off spaces are described and explored in this paper. The ultimate contribution lies in the understanding of such trade-off spaces for the purposes of optimal design of such systems. We use our approach to analyse the recently launched Identity Card scheme in the United Kingdom.