Should You Switch To Biometric Access Control?
Biometric access control is the use of biometric factors — in other words, biological characteristics — to allow access to a building, room, or other area or object. Biometric factors can include voice recognition, fingerprints and handprints, and more. Places that need very good security often use biometric access instead of cards or codes because it's impossible to lend a body part to someone to get past biometric security. If your company is upgrading its access controls, biometric options may be under consideration. While helpful, there are some things about biometric access controls that you need to know to ensure you make the right choice for your company.
Easy to Identify Who Actually Had Access
On one hand, biometrics make it easy to identify who accesses a property. While it is possible that an unauthorized person could force an authorized person to use their permissions to allow access to the property, chances are that if you find that the system logged someone as accessing the property, then that person really was there and trying to get in. Cards, keys, and codes can be borrowed or stolen, and if you find that the system log shows someone's card was used to access the property, that doesn't necessarily mean that person was actually the one to use the card.
Could Require Occupants to Provide More Medical Info Than They Want
Biometrics has received some pushback from people who are concerned about their own privacy and bodily control. That the system relies on physical characteristics also means that people might have to provide more medical information than they want to should they experience a medical issue that affects the biometric factors in question. For example, someone who injures their hand may have to give more detail about the injury than they'd like if the injury obscured their fingerprints when those are used to identify the person for access control. Another person who simply doesn't want biological characteristics logged in the security system may object to sharing voiceprints or iris images.
Might Be Thrown off by Minor Changes
Biometric systems can also be thrown off by temporary changes, such as voice recognition not recognizing someone when they're suffering from allergies that have affected their throat. This won't make a biometric system impossible to ever use, but you should devise a plan to deal with these minor issues so that access isn't blocked for legitimate occupants.
Contact a company that offers commercial access control systems for more information.