A Guide to Our Privacy-First Approach to Biometric Data and Public Safety

1. Introduction – Safety and Privacy Can Coexist

At Biometrica, we believe protecting people and protecting privacy are not in conflict. We built our systems around the core belief that public safety should never require mass surveillance or the sacrifice of civil liberties.

Every solution we have — from our real-time threat and victim identification systems to our law enforcement database — is designed to work without recording, transmitting, accessing, or retaining biometric data. We do not, and will not, conduct mass surveillance.

Our mission is simple:

  • Protect communities from real threats in real-time.
  • Help recover victims, including missing children and vulnerable adults.
  • Do it without creating a surveillance state.

2. What is Biometric Data?

Biometric data refers to measurable biological characteristics — like facial geometry (faceprints), fingerprints, iris patterns, and voiceprints — that can be used to identify people. Biometric data is highly sensitive because it is inherently linked to a person and, unlike passwords, cannot easily be changed if misused.

This is why laws like the:

  • Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA)
  • European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
  • UK Data Protection Act (DPA)
  • Canada’s PIPEDA & Quebec’s Law 25
  • The EU Artificial Intelligence Act

…treat biometric data as special and require stronger safeguards.

3. Biometrica’s Unique Approach — What Makes Us Different?

Most companies doing real-time surveillance do one or all of five things we do not do:

  1. Capture video of everyone, storing footage for possible future analysis.
  2. Build or maintain a biometric database (faceprints or templates).
  3. Let algorithms make decisions without human oversight.
  4. Permit a live view into cameras.
  5. Store PII data on the actual camera device in order to do real-time comparisons.

We don’t do any of these.

Instead, Biometrica operates differently:

Common Practice Biometrica’s Approach
Video surveillance of everyone No video is ever recorded or stored
Faceprints / biometric templates are built and retained We do not generate, access, store, or transmit biometric templates
Automated real-time facial recognition and alerts Human-in-the-loop oversight for every alert
Mass surveillance by default Relevance-based, lawful alerts only
Data processed directly on cameras or devices All matching is done in an isolated third-party black box environment

4. The Black Box: The Core of Our Privacy Design

Biometrica does not perform biometric matching internally.

All biometric comparisons (facial matching) are done by an independent, NIST-evaluated and approved third-party provider operating in a fully isolated, secure black box environment that we have no access to.

This means:

  • We never see biometric templates (faceprints) and biometric identifiers.
  • We never store biometric data.
  • We only get one thing back:
    A case number associated with an individual person at our end, in case of a possible match.

This model removes the risk of misuse or unauthorized access to biometric data by Biometrica staff, law enforcement, or any other third parties.

5. Human-in-the-Loop — Why It Matters for RTIS/RVIS

Even after a match is suggested by the algorithm:

  1. A trained human analyst at Biometrica’s Rapid Action Center (RAC) must confirm the match.
  2. Then, only after confirming its relevance to a facility’s lawful mission is an alert sent.
  3. No automated action is ever taken — a human is always responsible.

This eliminates false positives and reduces risks of bias or error. Audit trails for alerts also ensure algorithmic accountability and guarantees that our technology is used ethically and legally.

6. Relevance-Based Alerts — A Practical Safeguard

Not all matches lead to an alert.

Example:

  • A hotel may not care about a person’s past marijuana possession but will care about a known human trafficker or someone with ID fraud.
  • A school will need to know if a sex offender is within 1,000 feet, but not if someone has a past DUI.

We design with context and common sense, helping avoid scarlet-letter-style labeling and protecting people from being unfairly flagged.

7. Privacy by Design — Embedded at Every Step

Our safeguards include:

  • Automatic deletion of unmatched images.
  • No biometric templates are created or stored.
  • Minimal data collected — only what is needed, only when it is needed.
  • Secure, auditable processes with immutable logs.
  • We do not sell data. We do not sell direct access to UMbRA to commercial entities.
  • Every alert is reviewed by a human. Every.

8. Closing Thoughts — Why This Matters

In public safety, it is tempting to prioritize security over liberty. We refused to make that choice. Instead, we chose both.

Every child recovered, every potential violent offender identified, every missing person reunited with their family — all without spying on everyone else — proves that you do not need mass surveillance to protect people effectively.

We invite you to ask questions, challenge us, and learn how privacy, ethics, and public safety can work together.

For inquiries or training:

Email: privacy@biometrica.com or leo@biometrica.com