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Young Adult Perception and Acceptance of Biometrics

Allen, Anthony W., Jr.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ysu1363891122

Abstract Details

2013, Master of Computing and Information Systems, Youngstown State University, Department of Computer Science and Information Systems.
The ever growing need for more secure forms of identification has spawned many new and improved technologies. These technologies are known as biometric technologies and as they continue to develop and improve, the opportunity for greater personal and national security drastically increases. The problem is implementation and user adoption. As with any science, it is very difficult to gain wide spread adoption and trust from the general public. If we are going to continue to improve our security measures in this country then biometric technologies need to continue to be developed. The use of biometric technologies has the best chance of accomplishing this improvement. It is imperative that our country looks to implement these ever important technologies as they protect us in countless ways. There is proof of national success in other foreign countries such as India and the U.K. and their implementation of biometric technologies should be seen as a goal for the United States. With the tragic events of September 11th 2001, one would assume that the United States would already be a leader in implementing national biometric systems. Sadly this is not the case. There are many reasons for the general public, commercial businesses, and/or the United States government to be hesitant on implementing these technologies. These reasons include but are not limited to cost, privacy issues, reluctance and fear of a “big brother government”, information abuse, identity theft, and public perception of inconvenience or hassle. One would also assume that the younger generations would be much more accepting of these technologies as they show a much higher comfort level and dependency on the internet and technology in general. This may or may not be the case. Therefore, a survey study is conducted to measure the public perceptions and opinions on the use of biometric technologies that specifically targets the young adults, assuming that their altitude would be more influential in determining the development and future of biometric technologies. The major findings of the survey study are: • Basic Knowledge of Biometrics - It can be concluded from the results in this section that young adults need more education and experience to build trust in biometric technologies. When introduced to the biometric methods, they are familiar with the use of fingerprinting for identification purposes but are generally unaware of any others. The results are encouraging as the participants trust that biometric data is unique (reliable), but they are unsure whether or not the data can be duplicated (secure). • Concerns of Using Biometric Technologies - We conclude that young adults have concerns and benefits that align with their own personal concern before anything else, especially the topic of identity theft. The benefit that biometric technologies can provide great ease and convenience can get overlooked. There are many people that still view biometric technologies as an inconvenience and hassle and these views need to be changed if biometric technologies are going to be increasingly successful in the coming years. • Acceptance of Biometrics Used by the Government and Organizations - In this section we gained some very distinct feelings of the young adult population toward biometric technologies. Some of these feelings could even be applied to the population as a whole as the situations are not specific to age. Generally the young adult population showed in this section that hassle is a concern, they are concerned with the safety of their money, and they are generally accepting of biometric use. • Acceptance of Personal Use of Biometrics - In the personal use section of survey data there are only a couple of significant findings. Findings lineup fairly well with the age group as the participants felt strongest about logging into a computer, and entering their automobile which are generally very important elements to the young adult population. The information found here would be very beneficial to both computer and car manufacturers who target the young adult demographic as they could possibly add a fingerprint scanner and attract some additional customers. • Attitude of Providing Biometrics - In this section we found that the young adult population is not afraid to provide their biometric information to companies, the government or universities. The one topic that resulted in some push back is the one that involved new born babies. There will always be a stronger push back with a topic that involves infants, as they can’t choose for themselves. Interestingly in this section we saw some very strong support of providing biometric information, but there is still the question of how the sample feels about entities that control the information. • About the Technology Advancement - In this section we definitively see that even young adults are skeptical about who controls any biometric information stored in databases. They also are still unsure about the security and reliability of biometric methods. Finally, like any other technology, the amount of time it takes to use biometric information is a critical component as 71% of respondents would wait a maximum of 10 seconds. The government and companies who wish to institute biometric technologies have a lot of work to do to keep advancing the technology in the coming years. • Future of Biometrics - The future of biometrics is promising but will not be successful unless certain aspects are truly taken into consideration. Young adults are believed to be the most willing to adopt technology, but if there is sufficient hesitation from young adults toward the use and trust of biometric technologies it can be assumed that the baby boomer generation and seniors would be even more skeptical. The government and any corporate entities that wish to implement biometric systems should heavily consider the data presented in these results.
Yong Zhang, Ph.D. (Advisor)
John Sullins, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Alina Lazar, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
63 p.
Behavioral Sciences; Bioinformatics; Biostatistics; Marketing; Social Research
Biometrics; Young Adult Perception of biometrics; Market Research Survey; Public Perception of Biometrics; Domographics of Biometrics; Attitude to providing biometrics

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Allen, Jr., A. W. (2013). Young Adult Perception and Acceptance of Biometrics [Master's thesis, Youngstown State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ysu1363891122

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Allen, Jr., Anthony. Young Adult Perception and Acceptance of Biometrics. 2013. Youngstown State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ysu1363891122.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Allen, Jr., Anthony. "Young Adult Perception and Acceptance of Biometrics." Master's thesis, Youngstown State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ysu1363891122

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ysu1363891122
641
© 2012, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Youngstown State University and OhioLINK.