Border Control and Use of Biometrics: Reasons Why the Right to Privacy Can Not Be Absolute

TL;DR

This paper examines the limitations of the right to privacy in the context of biometric border control, highlighting conflicts with security needs and design challenges that prevent privacy from being absolute.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of why privacy cannot be absolute in biometric border control, considering security, risk analysis, and engineering perspectives.

Findings

Privacy and security interests often conflict in border control.

Design challenges hinder implementing Privacy by Design in biometric systems.

Absolute privacy is incompatible with effective border security measures.

Abstract

This paper discusses concerns pertaining to the absoluteness of the right to privacy regarding the use of biometric data for border control. The discussion explains why privacy cannot be absolute from different points of view, including privacy versus national security, privacy properties conflicting with border risk analysis, and Privacy by Design (PbD) and engineering design challenges.