Privacy Preserving Biometric Matching

Biometric matching is a process by which distinct features are used to identify an individual. Doing so privately is important because biometric data, such as fingerprints or facial features, is not something that can be easily changed or updated if put at risk. In this study, we perform a piece of the biometric matching process in a privacy preserving manner by using secure multiparty computation (SMPC). Using SMPC allows the identifying biological data, called a template, to remain stored by the data owner during the matching process. This provides security guarantees to the biological data while it is in use and therefore reduces the chances the data is stolen. In this study, we find that performing biometric matching using SMPC is just as accurate as performing the same match in plaintext.