Digital Ethics for Biometric Applications in a Smart City

From border control using fingerprints to law enforcement with video surveillance to self-activating devices via voice identification, biometric data is used in many applications in the contemporary context of a Smart City. Biometric data consists of human characteristics that can identify one person from others. Given the advent of big data and the ability to collect large amounts of data about people, data sources ranging from fingerprints to typing patterns can build an identifying profile of a person. In this article, we examine different types of biometric data used in a smart city based on a framework that differentiates between profile initialization and identification processes. Then, we discuss digital ethics within the usage of biometric data along the lines of data permissibility and renewability. Finally, we provide suggestions for improving biometric data collection and processing in the modern smart city.