Talk:Fingerprinting

A few points

A "green card" is broader than a work permit, as it encompasses a wide range of legal authorizations to be in the US.

I have some exposure to fingerprint technology, both biometric and law enforcement, but can't give you references on the spot. I can also say a bit about law enforcement use in the US; the main fingerprint center moved from Washington DC to West Vierginia (Martinsburg?) when a political delegation really wanted jobs in its district. While there are some local databases, the authoritative fingerprint center is run by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Automated identification only became practical recently; as I remember, the main US system is AFIS (Automated Fingerprint Identification System).

Biometric use is increasing, although the readers have to deal with some gory contingencies -- they have temperature sensors so as not to be fooled by cut-off fingers. No single biometric technology covers all applications; fingerprint scanners are very nice when a relatively slow scan time is acceptable, and for esthetic reasons, it's a one-user identity check. With those caveats, a very good application is laptop signon. Howard C. Berkowitz 14:26, 14 October 2010 (UTC)