Wednesday, 16 November 2011

GreenInk 2 – bringing the Home Office's use of biometrics under statistical control

Unpublished:
From: David Moss
Sent: 15 November 2011 17:54
To: 'letters@thetimes.co.uk'
Subject: Jenny Booth and Philippe Naughton, 15 November 2011, Theresa May ‘destroyed my reputation’

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article3227351.ece

Sir

In the matter of Brodie Clark, the public learn for the first time that "fingerprint matching ... was the lowest level of nine identity checks".

Ministers have given the impression for ten years since 9/11 that these biometrics are reliable. No statistics have ever been published to support this impression. There are no such statistics.

We have also learnt through the UK Statistics Authority that the Home Office have been misusing statistics, not for the first time, to improve the impression of their performance.

The UK Statistics Authority's stance in this matter is exemplary. I recommend that they should also be given the chance to review the statistics available on the biometrics used by the Home Office. If this technology turns out to be too unreliable, then the projects which rely on it should be discontinued to avoid any further waste of public money.

Yours
David Moss

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