Paper details

Paper authors	Caglar Acikyildiz
In panel on	Technology, Innovation and Experimentation in the Refugee Sector
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

Humanitarian organizations are collecting, storing, processing, and sharing biometric data especially for the last decade. An emerging body of scholarship focuses on the use of humanitarian biometrics. However, literature fails to grasp the scope for variation in the ways in which biometrics are used. As part of an ongoing PhD project, the present paper asks how different international humanitarian organizations use biometric technology in humanitarian aid operations. Examining the practice of The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), and CARE International, this paper seeks to identify the extent and nature of differences in how biometrics are used in humanitarian response. An initial literature review theorizes that these organizations may vary in several aspects including the purpose of data collection, type of assistance associated, type of biometrics used, claimed value of biometrics, category of data storage, data protection efforts, data sharing, and consent mechanisms. The second part of the paper draws on analysis of reports of the mentioned organizations, supplemented by semi-structured interviews conducted with program coordinators, database officers, data analysts, consultants, and network administrators to identify how their uses of biometrics vary in practice.

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