BY DR MASIMBA MAVAZA| The advantages of biometrics voting are that the person is the key so you need never to remember your card or key again.
Each body part is unique and Biometrics uses your unique identity to enable to purchase, activate something or unlock it. Biometrics encompasses Voice, Vein, Eye, Fingerprint, Facial recognition and more. All information is held in a database so that when retrieved can properly identify the person as who they claim to be.
The disadvantages are numerous however,
What would be so bad about having a voting system hacked. You could erase the data so no one could vote because they do not match as the file will not be there. You could also switch data around so that it is still there but doesn’t match properly. Criminals have been known to remove fingers to open biometric locks, this could be unlikely in voting Biometrics requires a lot of data to be kept on a person, these systems are not always reliable as human beings change over time if you are ill; eyes puffy, voice hoarse or your fingers are rough from laboring for example it maybe more difficult for the machinery to identify you accurately. Every time you use Biometrics you are being tracked by a database bringing up a range of privacy issues. The final disadvantage is the expense and technical complexity of such systems.
Disadvantages of a biometric voting system.
The finger print of those people working in Chemical industries are often affected. Therefore, these companies should not use the finger print mode for authentication.
It is found that with age, the voice of a person differs. Also when the person has flu or throat infection the voice changes or if there there is too much noise in the environment this method maynot authenticate correctly. Therefore this method of verification is not workable at all times.
For people affected with diabetes, the eyes get affected resulting in differences. Biometrics is an expensive security solution.
Advantages of Biometrics :
* Increases security – Provide a convenient and low-cost additional tier of security.
* Reduces vote fraud by employing hard-to-forge technologies and materials, such as Minimise the opportunity for ID fraud and buddy punching.
* Eliminates problems caused by lost IDs or forgotten passwords by using physiological attributes, such as to revent unauthorised use of lost, stolen or “borrowed” ID cards.
* Integrates0 a wide range of biometric solutions and technologies, customer applications and databases into a robust and scalable control solution for facility and network access
* Make it possible, automatically, to know WHO did WHAT, WHERE and WHEN!
But the technicality can make it difficult for the voter in Mudzi or Tsholotsho to realise that he might not have voted. So celebrating for biometric voting is still premature
If we have failed to pay our civil servants will we be able to pay for the biometric system.