...Protecting worker privacy has also been touted as a benefit of biometrics at London City Airport, where a fingerprint system has been installed for access to secure areas and computer networks, says Oliver Tattan, CEO of Daon, the New York-based technology provider for the project.

The London City project has workers using proximity cards along with fingerprint scanners for access. Proximity cards allow a user to hold the card near a reader and gain access to a secure area. The cards carry a microchip that returns a radio signal when held near a reader that emits a constant signal.

The airport is spending $500,000 on the biometric system, which is used by its 1,600 employees. The system includes 50 fingerprint scanners for physical access and 20 scanners for computer log-on.

During training seminars, where employees were enrolled in the new system, workers were told how the system would protect their privacy, Tattan says. "Your identity is your own," he says, adding that no one can pretend to be someone else. But during training seminars some airport employees expressed concern about the system, again associating fingerprints with criminal behavior.

Tattan says concern was eased when employees were told that fingerprint images were not being store, just templates, or mathematical representations...