"New World Order" Gets Up Close and Personal With Iris Recognition

02-02-2011 • Blacklistednews.com/ & Bloomberg.com

If Hoyos Corp. has its way, the world will soon resemble a Tom Cruise movie. A closely held company based in Puerto Rico, Hoyos makes devices that photograph human irises for identification purposes, like the technology featured in the films “Mission: Impossible” and “Minority Report.” In the movies, the technology protects super-secret labs and high-security vaults, helps chase down criminals and flashes personalized ads. In the real world, it screens employees of Bank of America Corp. and travelers at London’s Heathrow Airport and helps New York City police track prisoners. As key patents expire and costs fall, Hoyos wants to make the technology ubiquitous, installing it on mobile phones to verify online payments and cash machines to replace bank cards that require personal identification numbers, said Chief Development Officer Jeff Carter. “The cost of the devices has come down and the fraud is going up at such an escalating rate that it’s beginning to make sense,” Carter said in an interview at the New York offices of Hoyos, formerly known as Global Rainmakers Inc. Civil libertarians warn that the technology’s use may come with complications for privacy, and increased reliance on it may heighten the risk of misidentification. Physical Characteristics Biometric technology such as iris recognition uses physical characteristics including facial shape, fingerprints, retinal photos and iris patterns to confirm identities.