Biometrics and COVID-19: a Perfect Storm for Disability Discrimination
Clear’s new Health Pass program could easily be used to discriminate against disabled people
Biometrics, tools which use individual unchangeable characteristics to verify one’s identity, are being woven into increasingly more areas of our lives. From fingerprints to facial recognition databases, biometric technology is being used on our phones, at airports and other travel centers, and banks.
Additionally, it’s easier than ever to track and collect health data using apps or wearables like Apple Watch or FitBit. The expanding use of these identifiers and data, along with the privacy concerns they bring up, are hot topics as the industry expands. But there are concerns specific to healthcare, chronic illness, and disability that have become more and more critical to discuss recently, given the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the biometric identification company, Clear, rolling out health passports that can be used to grant or deny entrance to spaces, access is at risk for people who may be required to use the platform but cannot pass barriers to entry for health reasons outside of coronavirus. Another company, Safe Health Systems, has partnered with the Mayo Clinic to develop a “health passport.”
