PolyU plays host to International Conference on Ethics and Policy of Biometrics

Jan. 4, 2010 - PRLog -- More than 100 privacy protection and biometrics security experts, policy makers and industry practitioners from over 10 countries and territories are gathering on the campus of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) from 4 to 5 January 2010 to attend the Third International Conference on Ethics and Policy of Biometrics and International Data Sharing.

The two-day Conference was kicked off by Dr The Hon. Samson Tam, Legislative Councillor (Information Technology); Professor Alex Wai, PolyU Associate Vice President and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering; Professor David Zhang, Head of the Department of Computing and Director of the Biometrics Research Centre of PolyU; and Professor Emilio Mordini, RISE Project Coordinator, Centre for Science, Society and Citizenship Centre, Rome, Italy, at an opening ceremony held today (4 January).

Organized by RISE consortium (Rising pan-European and International Awareness of Biometrics and Security Ethics), an international collaborative project funded mainly by the European Commission (EC), the Conference encourages an open dialogue among the participants on the application of biometrics and data security issues already instigated by the two previous conferences held in Brussels and Washington DC in 2005 and 2006.

According to the organizer, the rapid growth of the Asia-Pacific biometric market has raised great concerns about data protection, privacy and security issues. As the market continues to grow robustly, international dialogue on legal and ethical aspects of biometrics must be further developed and must include Asia, in order to be strategic and successful. The Conference is therefore being held in Hong Kong, one of the most geographically and strategically attractive locations in Asia.

The first day of the Conference started with the opening lectures given by Mr Roderick Woo, Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Hong Kong, on the “Challenges posed by Biometric Technology on Data Privacy Protection in Hong Kong and the Way Forward”; and Dr Nalini Ratha, IBM Watson Research Centre, New York, US, on “Privacy Protection in High Security Biometrics Applications”.

Other invited keynote speakers include the following: (in alphabetical order of last names)

‧ Dr Alessandro Acquisti, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, US
‧ Dr Helen Chan, Assistant Director (Information Systems), Immigration Department of the  HKSAR government
‧ Mr Francis Chan, Superintendent of Police, Hong Kong Police Force
‧ Mr John Kropf, Deputy Chief Privacy Officer, Department of Homeland Security, US
‧ Ms Kim Legg, General Secretariat, INTERPOL, Lyon, France
‧ Professor Stan Li, Director of the Centre for Biometrics and Security Research, Chinese  Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
‧ Mr Stephen Mak, Deputy Government Chief Information Officer (Consulting and  Operations), Commerce and Economic Development Bureau of the HKSAR government
‧ Ms Nataša Pirc Musar, Information Commissioner, Slovenia
‧ Mr Blair Stewart, Assistant Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner, New  Zealand
‧ Professor Massimo Tistarelli, University di Sassari, Alghero, Italy
‧ Mr Raymond Wong, former Assistant Director (Information Systems), Immigration  Department of the HKSAR government
‧ Dr Elazar Zadok, former Director, Identification and Forensic Science Division, National  Police Headquarters, Israel
‧ Dr Zhai Xiaomei, Director of the Centre for Bioethics, Chinese Academy of Medical  Sciences, China

For further details of the Conference, please visit the official website at www.comp.polyu.edu.hk/conference/iceb

Press contact: Dr Ajay Kumar
Assistant Professor, Department of Computing, PolyU

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PolyU offers a wide range of courses which directly meets industrial, commercial and community needs. It also provides the public and private sectors in Hong Kong with expanding range of consultancy, professional training and applied research services.