15 September 2003

While consumers are demanding greater protection against fraud, employers are seeking greater workplace protection for their staff. There is no doubt that security is high on today's business agenda. Therefore, the surprisingly slow uptake of biometric security - such as fingerprint or retina scanning - could indicate that businesses need to do more to convince wary customers of the benefits of this technology. Moreover, uncertainty about whether biometrics are being introduced for company rather than customer benefit, has been a key delaying factor highlighted by research undertaken by Detica, the independent IT services company that delivers consulting and system implementation services to the customer management and security markets.

Results taken from Detica's research into electronic customer relationship management (eCRM) show that 73% of consumers believed that new electronic services were often introduced to benefit the company alone. As such, it is Detica's view that the benefits of more secure technologies should be clearly outlined to consumers in order to encourage user acceptance.

"Customers may associate biometric technologies - such as eyeball scanning and fingerprint recognition - with movies like Mission Impossible and James Bond, without realising that the technology also exists in the real world. Whilst the use of biometrics has great potential in the fight against fraud, it is critical that the customer's experiences of it are positive. 'Big Brother' privacy concerns and well-publicised reliability issues mean that biometrics have to be introduced carefully. A negative response to the technology could leave companies with some very expensive state-of-the art equipment lying dormant," comments David Porter, Head of Security and Risk at Detica.

Using biometrics alone for customer authentication is fraught with difficulties. According to Porter: "Customers using the technology may become disheartened if the system fails to recognise them. Combining biometrics with other means of identification, such as a smart card or password, is one solution. This means there is less reliance on the biometric systems, but security is much stronger than traditional approaches. Detica believes that businesses which now consider security and customer experience together will quickly show their customers they can benefit from powerful new technologies such as biometrics in the fight against fraud."

Nick Miles Text 100 Public Relations Tel: +44 (0)208 846 0700 email: