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> In Bangladesh, it announced that the government would create a database of children’s immunisations linked to their parents’ biometric information – most like

> In Bangladesh, it announced that the government would create a database of children’s immunisations linked to their parents’ biometric information – most likely a digital fingerprint. What is meant by "[biometric] digital fingerprint"? Do they just mean a literal fingerprint, but digitized? When I think of "digital fingerprints" I think of things like canvas fingerprinting or maybe perceptual hashing, not anything to do with biometrics. If they just mean taking prints of fingers and digitizing them, maybe just say "fingerprint" and drop the "digital" from the description. That's easier to understand. If people understand something, they'll fear it less.

detaro 7y ago
Matching of fingerprints and other biometrics is typically not done by storing an actual image, but by storing feature information hash-like. "digital fingerprint" is a pretty good term for that.
- catalogia 7y ago
  I'm aware that comparison of fingerprints is done by extracting/storing/comparing features. But in 2020 the digitization of fingerprints can/should go without saying and the details of how fingerprints are compared are just a distraction at best for most of the general public. As for 'digital fingerprint' being a good term for that, I disagree. I think that's a term that's very likely to confuse the layperson. If you search that term on wikipedia you'll find a disambiguation page that lists six options, none of which have anything to do with fingers: Message digest, Device fingerprint, Digital video fingerprinting, Acoustic fingerprint, Canvas fingerprinting, Content ID (algorithm) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_fingerprint https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_fingerprint If you search the same on google in a private window, the first two or three pages of results are all about the same computer-related topics as that wikipedia page (the first result is that wikipedia page, and the second is a blog post from Mozilla about browser fingerprinting.) After a few pages I started to find pages about digitized prints of fingers, so I don't doubt that people in the fingerprinting industry use this terminology. Nevertheless I can easily see laypeople being mislead.
DanBC 7y ago
I agree with you, they need a much simpler explanation of what they actually want to do. ID2020 have a nice page that discusses what they do: https://id2020.org/manifesto https://id2020.org/manifesto They also have a faq that talks about what a good digital ID is: https://id2020.org/faq https://id2020.org/faq But both of these are full of jargon, and they're overly-complex.
pjc50 7y ago
Is this going to be like aadhar in India?
lonelappde 7y ago
It's a metaphor that folded back on itself! It's not just a info about a real finger's print. It's biometric data like retinal measurements or Apple Face ID type stuff. Btw, "digital" means "finger"! Digits are the numbers you can get when you count on your fingers.

detaro 7y ago

Matching of fingerprints and other biometrics is typically not done by storing an actual image, but by storing feature information hash-like. "digital fingerprint" is a pretty good term for that.

catalogia 7y ago
I'm aware that comparison of fingerprints is done by extracting/storing/comparing features. But in 2020 the digitization of fingerprints can/should go without saying and the details of how fingerprints are compared are just a distraction at best for most of the general public. As for 'digital fingerprint' being a good term for that, I disagree. I think that's a term that's very likely to confuse the layperson. If you search that term on wikipedia you'll find a disambiguation page that lists six options, none of which have anything to do with fingers: Message digest, Device fingerprint, Digital video fingerprinting, Acoustic fingerprint, Canvas fingerprinting, Content ID (algorithm) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_fingerprint https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_fingerprint If you search the same on google in a private window, the first two or three pages of results are all about the same computer-related topics as that wikipedia page (the first result is that wikipedia page, and the second is a blog post from Mozilla about browser fingerprinting.) After a few pages I started to find pages about digitized prints of fingers, so I don't doubt that people in the fingerprinting industry use this terminology. Nevertheless I can easily see laypeople being mislead.

DanBC 7y ago

I agree with you, they need a much simpler explanation of what they actually want to do. ID2020 have a nice page that discusses what they do: https://id2020.org/manifesto https://id2020.org/manifesto They also have a faq that talks about what a good digital ID is: https://id2020.org/faq https://id2020.org/faq But both of these are full of jargon, and they're overly-complex.

pjc50 7y ago

Is this going to be like aadhar in India?

lonelappde 7y ago

It's a metaphor that folded back on itself! It's not just a info about a real finger's print. It's biometric data like retinal measurements or Apple Face ID type stuff. Btw, "digital" means "finger"! Digits are the numbers you can get when you count on your fingers.