[Gllug] Biometrics?

[John Edwards]

On Mon, Mar 23, 2009 at 09:54:06AM +0000, John G Walker wrote:
> On Mon, 23 Mar 2009 09:40:33 +0000 (GMT) Chris Bell
> <chrisbell at overview.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> 
>> how big is a DNA ID record?
> 
> They don't record all the DNA details of an individual, which would eb
> impossible. They record specific markers,

Which is why DNA fingerprinting is not 100% accurate and you get
collisions in any large sample. Make that sample 60 million and
collisions are inevitable.

So it works for the small numbers of people (eg murder suspects)
but badly for the identifying the whole population.

Admittedly with current technology fingerprints and retinal scans
are even worse at collisions, and so combining all three should
provide better results. But while all three may be use in a national
ID database, in practice probably only one of this techniques will
be used in the field at any one time and so can not be guaranteed to
be unique.

-- 
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|    John Edwards   Email: john at cornerstonelinux.co.uk    |
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