Certainly would be nice for law enforcement if a SIN was silently tagged as misused...a bit like the delayed bans Valve hands out on Steam. But who is the authority to go to when a dead Ares SIN gets used at an UCAS shopping mall which contracts LS for security? I say tell them there is something wrong with the SIN and have them decide what to do themselves.


Makes sense, a store would just get back a "verification failed", while a police device would tell whether the verification failed because the fingerprints didn't match, the bearer is dead, or because the SIN never existed.

On a related note, here is a friendly reminder that biometrics are not as foolproof as people like to think: http://www.dw.de/german-defense-minister-v...club/a-18154832

Yeah, the idea of biometrics can be defeated by scale.

Fir example, using DNA. Other than identical twins, every human has a unique DNA pattern, right? Well, true: no one has the same exact DNA combination as you. But there are about 3.2 billion genomes in the human body. It took the best computers of the time thirteen years to fully decode one human's DNA; even with new advances, it would take way too long to sequence and identify each one.

So, they shortcut. A lot of DNA is identical across humans anyway, only 2% or so is different. So, they focus on just a few-- I think there are only 13 markers they look for, and if you use all of them, you have a really accurate test. But even then, they're a lot of shortcutting, and sometimes they won't run all 13. That introduces a higher margin for error.

Taking this to Shadowrun: even allowing for future computers and technology, they're going to be taking the shortcut approach. So, when someone scans your DNA, they're not going to wait for an exact match, they're going to scan a few markers and run them through a database. With the billions and billions of people in the world, getting a repeat on a few of those sequences is going to happen, especially on casual or routine scans, like when you run your debit card for a bag of chips. They're going to operate on a "close enough" mentality.