AS THE FEDERAL Government introduced legislation to allow the distribution of a new smart card, a survey in the US and the UK has found fears over security threats are leading people to become less wary of biometric technology.

The new evidence comes from a poll commissioned by Unysis of almost 1,800 people in the US and 500 in the UK.

It found 69 per cent of respondents in the US and 92 per cent in the UK would prefer banks, credit card companies, healthcare providers and government organisations to adopt biometric technologies, rather than other protection measures such as smart card readers, security tokens or passwords, to verify personal identities.

In November, the Unisys Security Index, which measures sentiment on security in Australia, New Zealand and Asia, found 98 per cent of Australians would be “happy using one or more biometric identifiers to prove their identity”.

The Australian Government recently introduced the Human Services (Enhanced Service Delivery) Bill 2007, which if passed will allow the Commonwealth to issue the “Access Card”, designed to provide access to a range of government services with just one card, replacing around 17 existing cards.

According to the Human Services Minister, Ian Campbell, the smart card is the “single greatest initiative ever undertaken in Australia to combat welfare fraud. Over the next 10 years this Government will be distributing almost a trillion dollars in health and social service benefits. That significant sum of money provides enormous risks for Australian taxpayers to be ‘ripped off’.”

Because the card stores personal information on a chip embedded in the card that can be used by many different agencies, privacy advocates are concerned it could in fact increase the amount of personal information available for misuse should it be lost or linked with other personal information.

It also introduces a “unique national identifier” for each person holding a card, which some say is tantamount to an identity card.

The card is expected to include a holder’s name, address, details of children or other dependants, a digitised photo, signature, card number, expiry date, gender, concession status and a personal identification number.

It will also be able to store next of kin details, details of drug allergies and organ donor status.

The Access Card will be used in conjunction with biometric facial recognition technology to verify that the person holding the card is the rightful owner of the card. It will also be used to check whether someone applying for a card hasn’t already been issued with one.

The Federal Government maintains it will not constitute a national ID card as its use will be voluntary.