In the bi-annual Unisys Security Index, which surveys more than 1,000 American consumers on their opinion of a range of security issues, more than 50 percent of respondents agreed to supply their biometric data in each of the three instances above. 

 

While Americans appear willing to supply their biometric data to the government or banks, they are not comfortable providing it to social media sites. Only 21.3 percent of respondents said they would give social media sites their biometric data. 

 

Furthermore 93 percent of those surveyed said they would be comfortable using fingerprint scans, 79 percent said they were willing to use iris recognition – an increase of 20 percent and 17 percent, respectively, since consumers were surveyed in November 2008.

 

“Interestingly, Americans are willing to provide biometric data for identity verification, but we are not seeing the widespread use of biometrics in daily transactions with governments, financial or retail institutions,” said Mark Cohn, the vice president of enterprise security at Unisys. “Adoption of interoperable identity management systems and an investment in shared infrastructure would hasten widespread use of biometrics, taking advantage of the technology that’s available today and the public’s growing acceptance of biometrics.”