Friday Roundup

INDIA: It's good to have goals — 'Aadhaar' card for everyone in Punjab by March (Daily Bhaskar)

ZIMBABWE: Biometrics in Border Migrant Reception Centre (African Press Organization) There seems to be a lot of migration within Africa. Biometrics can help countries gather better data about what's going in that regard.

APPLE: Patent applications suggests hidden sensors suitable for biometrics (UK Register) "'Electronic devices are becoming more and more sophisticated, capable of performing a multitude of tasks from image capture to identity verification through biometric sensors,' patent application 20120258773 notes. That's the good news; the bad news is that each new sensor clutters up the seamless shiny-shiny of an iDevice."

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE: Apple Wants To Use Your Fingerprints to Unlock Your iPhone (gizmodo)

Electoral Biometrics: Kenya & Zimbabwe

There we're quite a few interesting developments in the world of biometrics yesterday that I didn't get a chance to highlight here...

Two of them have to do with biometric elections in Africa. First, it looks like the on-again-off-again biometric voter roll for Kenya may be on again. If it is, you'll certainly see more on the matter here. If you need a chance to catch up on the saga,  here's our most recent post on the subject.

Meanwhile there's considerable interest in applying biometric technology to voter registration in Zimbabwe. Other Zimbabwe posts are here. Biometric voter systems have a lot to recommend them, especially in young democracies or those with a civil society emerging as a potent force capable of holding governments responsive to the rule of law. Zimbabwe's democracy problems don't seem to be the kind that are solved with information technology.

Zimbabwe Marriage Certificate Biometrics Update

Last Wednesday, we took note of Zimbabwe's new marriage certificates. Today's news on the subject is cause for great concern but as it turns out, the whole affair has little to do with biometrics.

Computerized fingerprint biometrics could be used to create a database of married people in order to prevent multiple marriages. A system of this nature could be deployed with a minimum of inconvenience to those wishing to be married. That's not what Zimbabwe is doing. Instead Zimbabwe has effectively banned marriage. I'll leave it to the interested reader to assess the aims of Zimbabwe's Registrar General.

Zimbabwe: New Marriage Certificate Unveiled

The requirement is meant to weed out bogus marriage officers (All Africa)

The Government last month introduced measures to flush out foreigners and Zimbabweans who have been abusing the country's marriage laws.

Such measures included computerised and serialised marriage certificates to curb multiple marriages, marriages of convenience and immigration fraud.

Foreigners, mostly those from Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo, enter into marriages of convenience and marry more than one wife using different names to secure Zimbabwean citizenship or residence permits.

In most marriages of convenience, women are lured with money or property.

A biometric voter role for Zimbabwe?

Bankrupt ZEC requires US$240m for polls (TheIndependant.co.zw)

According to ZEC’s five-year strategic plan, the commission needs nearly US$94 million for the referendum, US$8,6 million for the delimitation exercise, US$20 million for the voters’ roll and US$117,45 million for the elections. The strategic plan was launched in the capital on Tuesday.
The US$94 million for the referendum includes money for pre-referendum preparations, voter education, election materials and conducting the referendum.

and

He said the key to achieving a free and fair election was to ensure “a new, biometric voters’ roll, a stable and secure environment, a credible electoral body with a non-partisan secretariat, a non-partisan public media, security sector reform and a referendum on the new constitution. We cannot have an election before we achieve these key milestones”.

Zimbabwe (CIA World Factbook)
$240 million is approximately $40 per voter and 5.5% of Zimbabwe's estimated 2010 GDP.

UPDATE:
Zimbabwe Prof Arrested, Tortured for Watching Viral Vids (Wired.com)

Mugabe is known as one of the most ruthless and vicious dictators in the world, and it appears he has managed to terrorize his own people sufficiently that the prospect of any sort of popular uprising is very remote.

It is difficult to see how a biometric voter registration system can, in the current circumstances, be of any benefit to ordinary Zimbabweans. The $240 million it will cost seems more likely to benefit antidemocratic rather than democratic forces.