A tattoo is not a face. Ethical aspects of tattoo-based biometrics
| Pages | 110-122 |
| Date | 14 May 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JICES-05-2017-0029 |
| Published date | 14 May 2018 |
| Author | Fabio Bacchini,Ludovica Lorusso |
A tattoo is not a face. Ethical
aspects of tattoo-based biometrics
Fabio Bacchini
Laboratory of Applied Epistemology, DADU, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy
and Logos Research Group in Analytic Philosophy, Universitat de Barcelona,
Barcelona, España and SCM, Universitat de Girona, Girona, España, and
Ludovica Lorusso
Department of Political Science, Communication, Engineering and
Information Technologies, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy and SCM,
Universitat de Girona, Girona, España
Abstract
Purpose –This study aims to explore the ethical and social issuesoftattoo recognition technology(TRT)
and tattoo similarity detection technology(TSDT), which are expected to be increasingly used by state and
local policedepartments and law enforcement agencies.
Design/methodology/approach –The paper investigates the new ethical concerns raised by tattoo-
based biometricson a comparative basis with face-recognitionbiometrics.
Findings –TRT raises much more ethically sensitiveissues than face recognition, because tattoos are
meaningful biometric traits, and tattoo identification is tantamount to the identification of many more
personal featuresthat normally would have remained invisible. TSDT’s assumptionthat classifying people in
virtue of their visible features is usefulto foretell their attitudes andbehaviours is dangerously similar to
racist thought.
Practical implications –The findings hope to promotean active debate on the ethical and social aspects
of tattoo-basedbiometrics before it is intensely implementedby law enforcement agencies.
Social implications –Tattooed individuals –inasmuchas they are more controlled and monitored –are
negatively discriminatedin comparison to un-tattooed individuals. As tattooing is not uniformlydistributed
among population, many demographic groups like African–Americans will be overrepresented in tattoos
databases used by TRT and TSDT, thus being affected by disproportionately higher risk to be found as a
match for a given suspect.
Originality/value –TRT and TSDT represent one of the new frontiers of biometrics. The ethical and
social issuesraised by TRT andTSDT are currently unexplored.
Keywords Surveillance, Race, Discrimination, Biometrics, Classifying individuals, Tattoos
Paper type Conceptual paper
1. Introduction
Biometrics is the science that aims atmeasuring and analysing a person’s unique
characteristics, both physical and behavioural, for identification and verification purposes.
Biometric technologiesare used for identification or recognition to determine who the person
The authors would like to thank Massimo Tistarelli for his generous support. Thanks also go to
Josep Lluis de la Rosa i Esteva and his research group of the University of Girona who provided
insight and expertise that greatly assisted our work. This work has been fully supported by the
IDENTITY Project –Computer Vision Enabled Multimedia Forensics and People Identification,
H2020-MSCA-RISE-2015, n. 690907.
JICES
16,2
110
Received24 May 2017
Revised31 August 2017
Accepted1 September 2017
Journalof Information,
Communicationand Ethics in
Society
Vol.16 No. 2, 2018
pp. 110-122
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1477-996X
DOI 10.1108/JICES-05-2017-0029
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1477-996X.htm
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