Using your ears as ID

I read this article where it was suggested that we could use our ears as a key, they use the word password, to allow access to our bank accounts and our phones etc.  as the research indicates that, like fingerprints, our ears create sounds that could very well be unique.

So what happens is that your phone sends a signal into your ear and listens to the returned sound.   It then checks that against your biometric and grants or denies access.   These sounds are believed to be constant throughout your life but can be changed by drugs or drink.

Of course my first thoughts were what else could this be used for and it didn’t take me long to work out if this was true it would be the key biometric that our KGB style government was waiting for.

You see other biometrics, size, gait, iris scans, DNA, voice and even fingerprints require some equipment and time to process.    It is no good for Plod to just pull a group up and take their biometrics and process them for a fishing expedition.  It takes too long.  DNA takes days, fingerprints several hours, your size, gait, voice etc. requires you to participate and then requires processing before identification.

This new system would just require something, a headset or even just a modified phone, to be held to your ears and the biometric scanned and searched in a database for an almost instantaneous response.   Now imagine going into a club or something and getting everyone in there to put this unit to their ear before they are allowed access to build up a complete list of who is in the building.

Now taking it a step further.   Imagine that every time you put a phone to your ear this biometric is scanned and logged.   It would make every modern phone a way to track and trace you.

The low equipment requirements coupled with negligible training means it would the most powerful tool against us you could ever come across.

Of course you could disguise your returns easily enough if you wanted by wearing a cover or something but not in front of plod or in public without bringing suspicion upon yourself.

So fingers crossed then that this biometric is not unique.   It does change with age and/or what clothes you are wearing because otherwise rolling out these detectors is going to be real easy and quick and we will have nowhere to hide.    Screw the banks security.  I think they are secure enough while we are not.