Many information systems involve data about people. Since the Renaissance, individuality and human identity have become central to our modern conception of mankind. Even a national inhabitant registration scheme would not solve international problems. A general-purpose scheme would be at its most effective if it were world-wide, with all people registered at birth. The scope for people to undertake illegal activities would be constrained. In principle at least, it would be very difficult for anyone to have any other than their own official identity; it would be scarcely possible to live entirely out of contact with the national government of the country in which they were resident; and similarly difficult to move between countries without being intercepted by border officials. Any high-integrity identifier represents a threat to civil liberties, because it represents the basis for a ubiquitous identification scheme, and such a scheme provides enormous power over the populace. As a result, the kinds of multi-purpose identification schemes, or inhabitant registration systems, which would appear capable of exciting the greatest degree of concern are those based on DNA-printing and implanted chips. While DNA and fingerprints are clearly the favored methods of identification, they require a priori record and verifiable baseline for comparison. When these tools cannot be used it is necessary to employ those biological factors with higher variation and lower diagnostic probability. This reference introduces a number of different specialties such as - dactiloscopy, bertillonage, photographs, identi-kit, odontograms, skeletal remains, tattoos, facial reconstruction and superimposition.
