USA TODAY

Biometrics to imprint job site

By Stephanie Armour
December 4, 2002

Forget about traditional reference checking. New technology has a growing number of companies checking out their employees' fingerprints instead — and raising privacy concerns in the process.

The technology is showing up at job fairs as companies turn to fingerprint technology to verify that applicants have no criminal records. Other employers use the technology as a newfangled time clock: Workers punch in and out using fingerprint scans instead of timecards.

It's also a security tool. Instead of wearing ID cards, employees enter buildings after touching a fingerprint scan. Instead of using a password, they log onto their computers with only a touch.

Supporters say biometrics technology is on its way to becoming a staple of workplace security. Already, organizations such as hospitals, banks, government agencies, schools and child-care centers use fingerprint technology.

Fueled largely by growth in the private sector, revenue in the industry is expected to grow from $600 million in 2002 to $4 billion by 2007, according to the New York-based International Biometric Group. Fingerprint technology now accounts for nearly $470 million of the revenue, making it the largest segment in the industry.

But that growth is raising first-of-a-kind privacy questions among civil libertarians who say the practice goes too far. Critics say there are not enough legal protections to prevent employers from compiling databases that could be sold to third parties or otherwise abused.

"The technology is developing at the speed of light, but laws that protect our privacy are in the Stone Age," says Barry Steinhardt, with the American Civil Liberties Union. "Over time, the databases will be used for wholly unrelated purposes. There's no law that an employer can't sell the data."

Who's using it:

• The Chicago Housing Authority is using fingerprint technology to increase computer network security. Instead of typing a password, employees have a computer mouse that takes a readout of their thumbprint to allow access.

The program will eventually cover more than 1,000 employees. Officials say the system will end calls to the company helpdesk from employees who've forgotten their passwords.

"We anticipate there'll be significant cost savings," says Bryan Land, assistant chief information officer.

• Union Bank of California will use fingerprint technology systems as part of a pre-employment screening process. The fingerprint scanning systems are being used at each of the bank's staffing centers, and it may put the system — which is compact and mobile — on the road with recruiters, who could check applicants' fingerprints at job fairs and campus recruiting events.

Previously, the San Francisco-based bank has taken traditional ink fingerprints and waited two to six weeks to get results. Because of the lag time, fingerprinting was done after employment had begun. Now, electronic fingerprints will have a turnaround time of about five days, allowing checks before the applicant is on the job.

"The bank is looking at losses and fraud as a whole. This is one way to reduce our risk," says Mark Schmidt, senior vice president of human resource.

• Columbus Children's Hospital in Ohio is using it. In April of this year, the hospital rolled out a comprehensive program that requires more than 1,000 doctors, nurses and pharmacists accessing patient medical records and entering medicine orders by computer to scan their fingerprint first using a keyboard pad. The cost of the system was about $200,000.

"We don't want anyone unauthorized to get at medical records," says David Fisher, the medical director. "It's incredibly fast. I was concerned it would be unacceptable to people, but we haven't had anybody who won't use it."

• At PlentyFun, a family entertainment center in Hilo, Hawaii, fingerprint technology is used to document when employees come to work and leave, as well as when they take breaks. The company, which offers such entertainment as arcade games and pool tables, has been using it since June.

Before, the company had to review timecards by hand every pay period. But the new system links directly to payroll software, saving time.

"It's great. You can't fake someone's fingerprint," says Brian Crawford, one of several owners. "People can't clock in and out for each other. There's no faking. Out of 40 employees, only one or two were concerned about privacy."

Fingerprinting in the workplace is growing because the technology has become more affordable, and more companies are giving security a high priority since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, experts say. Use has especially taken off among industries such as health care, pharmaceutical, government and financial service companies.

Brent Larsen, a senior developer at Count Me In, a Mount Prospect, Ill., firm that sells fingerprinting technology, says his company is seeing a 50% jump in sales each month. "The growth in the whole biometrics area is coming because it's finally at the point where companies can afford it."

Proponents say databases that store information don't save the actual fingerprints. Rather, they warehouse a mathematical representation of unique parts of the fingerprint, which they say protects users' privacy.

While critics say fingerprinting can have valuable uses, they also warn the technology can become an invasive tool to monitor workers. Many employers are interested in monitoring: Nearly 80% of companies record and review employee communications on the job, according to a survey by the American Management Association. That figure has doubled since 1997.

To help ease privacy concerns, some employers who've rolled out fingerprint technology have spoken with employees first to make sure there are no objections. Jonathan Augustine, president of AZG Research in Bowling Green, Ohio, wanted to use fingerprinting to monitor when his workers came and went. About a year ago, he brought them together and asked them what they thought.

"I said, 'Is this going to be a problem or a right-to-privacy issue?' " says Augustine, at the market research and consulting firm. "Quite frankly, I got very few people who had anything they didn't like. And there's no faking. Everybody has to come to work with their finger."