Exploitation of Biometrics and Humanode’s Response

Biometrics are everywhere now. We use our faces to unlock phones, our fingerprints to log in to apps, and even our irises to pass through airport security checks. It’s fast, easy, and feels kind of futuristic. But here’s the thing, unlike passwords, you can’t change your face or fingerprint if they get leaked. Once someone gets hold of that data, it’s with them forever.

That’s where the real problem starts. Governments use it to track people. Companies use it to make money. Hackers steal it to break into systems. And now with the rise of biometric-based KYC, this data is spreading faster than ever, often without people even realizing what they’re giving up.

In this piece, we’re breaking down how biometric data is being exploited and why that should worry you. And yeah, we’ll also talk about how Humanode is working on a better way to handle this. One that doesn’t put your identity in someone else’s hands.

So, how did we get here? How did biometric data go from something you'd only see in spy movies to becoming a default way to prove who you are?

It started with convenience. Fingerprint scanners replaced PIN codes. Face unlock became faster than typing a password. Banks, governments, and even crypto platforms jumped in, making biometrics the go-to tool for KYC and user onboarding. And at first glance, it made sense: after all, what’s more secure than your face or fingerprint?

But here’s the catch: biometric data isn’t like a login or a recovery phrase. You can’t reset it. You can’t generate a new one. If it’s stolen, it’s gone. Forever. And that’s exactly what makes it a goldmine for attackers and surveillance systems. Unlike traditional credentials, biometrics are tied to your physical identity, which means the fallout from a breach can be deeper, more personal, and practically impossible to fix.

And that risk? It’s not theoretical. From government breaches to corporate leaks, and even facial data scraped off social media, biometric data is being collected, mishandled, and in some cases, weaponized. The more it spreads, the less control users have over it, and the easier it becomes for bad actors to exploit it.

Let’s take a closer look at the different ways this exploitation is already happening, and what exactly makes biometric systems so fragile when placed in the wrong hands.

Let’s start with surveillance. Governments around the world are deploying facial recognition tech in public spaces, sometimes in the name of safety, but often with zero transparency. For example, London, New York, and Moscow have continued expanding their camera networks with facial ID systems quietly running in the background.

Then there’s the issue of centralized storage. In April 2025, SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest mobile carrier, reported a breach that affected over 27 million accounts, with personal and biometric-linked data exposed. This followed a broader trend of biometric-linked telecom leaks, like the MTN Group breach in Africa around the same time. While biometric specifics weren’t fully disclosed, such telecom data often ties into fingerprint or facial recognition used for identity confirmation.

It doesn’t stop there. Pindrop’s 2025 report showed a 1,300% surge in deepfake voice scams targeting financial and retail call centers. In one UK case, a finance team was nearly tricked into wiring $25 million after a Zoom call with a deepfaked CEO. Other scams use AI-generated voicemails or live calls to mimic executives and trick employees into fraud.

And while that’s all happening, companies like Clearview AI are still scraping billions of face images from social media, LinkedIn profiles, and even news sites without asking permission. A 2024 class-action lawsuit in Canada exposed just how massive and unchecked this scraping had become.

These aren’t isolated issues; they’re all connected. And they all exploit three core weaknesses in how biometric systems are built and deployed:

1. Lack of Consent – Most users never get a real choice. Their biometric data is collected passively, or buried behind long-term service that no one reads. Systems like public surveillance or scraped databases grab identities without permission.
2. Lack of Control – Once your biometric data is collected, you usually can’t access it, see how it’s being used, or delete it. You can’t revoke a face scan the way you revoke an API key.
3. Permanent Risk – Unlike a password, you can’t change your fingerprint or iris scan. If your biometric data leaks even once, it becomes a lifelong vulnerability.

All of the current exploitation from surveillance cameras to telecom breaches to deepfake fraud feeds off these three issues. And the more biometric systems depend on centralized control, the more damage can be done when things go wrong.

Let’s break down the main players taking advantage of this biometric mess.

Governments love biometrics because they’re efficient for control. Border agencies use facial scans. Police departments tap into surveillance footage. And in some countries, biometric tech is actively used to monitor, intimidate, or discriminate against specific communities. In China, for example, facial recognition has been used to track Uyghur Muslims. In Russia, it’s been tied to the arrest of protesters. Even in democratic countries, biometric programs quietly expand without public debate or oversight, like the U.S. Customs and Border Protection running facial recognition at airports with minimal transparency.

Corporations, meanwhile, see dollar signs. Your face and voice become tools for marketing, behavior analysis, or building giant AI models. Facebook got hit with a $650 million fine for collecting facial recognition data without consent. Retail stores have been caught using face recognition to analyze shopping behavior without telling anyone. And let’s not forget Clearview AI, which scraped billions of photos from the web to build a facial recognition engine it sells to law enforcement and private entities.

Then there are hackers and cybercriminals, who see biometric data as prime black market material. You can buy stolen fingerprint templates, voice data, and face scans on the dark web. Some attackers are using deepfake voices to bypass security systems and steal money. Others are building ransomware campaigns targeting biometric databases, threatening to leak or destroy identities unless paid off.

The motivations are different: control, profit, and fraud, but the exploitation always hits the same three weaknesses: no consent, no control, and permanent risk.

If there’s one common thread tying all this exploitation together, it’s this: centralized systems.

Most biometric data today lives in giant silos on government servers, corporate clouds, or third-party vendor databases. And once your biometric info is in one of these, you’re pretty much locked out of the process. You don’t control it. You can’t audit it. You probably don’t even know it’s there.

This setup creates a perfect storm:

• One breach can expose millions. Whether it’s the OPM fingerprint leak or the SK Telecom case, centralized systems make it easy for hackers to steal massive datasets in one go.
• One authority can abuse power. If a government or corporation decides to misuse biometric data, there’s rarely an effective check. Surveillance can ramp up quietly. Data can be sold or repurposed without oversight.
• Users have zero agency. There’s no “opt-out” once your face is scanned in public or your voice is recorded for onboarding. You can’t just switch to a new biometric ID. Centralization traps people in systems they didn’t sign up for.

This isn’t just bad architecture, it’s a fundamental threat to personal autonomy. And as biometric authentication spreads into finance, blockchain, and even daily interactions, that centralization risk only grows.

That’s why new decentralized biometric systems are being explored. However, most of them either fall short on privacy, still rely on trusted intermediaries, or focus only on specific use cases. 

Humanode is one of the few projects that tackles the full problem head-on, decentralizing not just data storage and verification but also making sure no single entity holds control over your identity. Basically, building a system that is for the people, by the people, and controlled by the people.

How Humanode Tackles the Issue

Humanode takes a radically different approach. Instead of building on the same centralized architecture, it combines cryptography, biometrics, and decentralized infrastructure. The goal is to use biometrics as a tool to verify your uniqueness. Be it your stake. 

Humanode uses a cryptographically secure biometric verification process to prove you are unique and alive. This proof can be used to build: a financial system where one human = one account, decentralized governance where one human = one vote, or any service/application that requires verifying that a user is a unique and real human being be it a social media platform, gaming dapp, or p2p marketplace. You can check usecases of Humanode technology here.

The “key” generated by your biometrics can be temporarily (in a single generation) tied to an EVM address, perhaps an identification token, or an account. Here’s how Humanode addresses the core problems:

1. No Biometric Storage in plain format (Control)Humanode utilizes private biometric authentication, never storing or processing biometric data in plain text. When a user verifies themselves, their biometric data is encrypted and processed inside a confidential virtual machine (CVM).

2. Confidential Virtual Machines (Privacy + Security)Biometric processing happens inside a CVM, a kind of black box that encrypts both data and code execution. Even Humanode can’t see what happens inside. These CVMs are built using AMD SEV-SNP. We also plan to enable remote attestation, allowing anyone to verify that the code running in the CVM is untampered and performing exactly as it claims to do, i.e., verifying uniqueness.

One thing to note here is that while Humanode deploys these CVMs, we cannot even access or view what happens inside them once they are deployed, making it a zero-trust system. However, Humanode does retain the ability to shut down CVMs, which is a temporary centralized control point while the infrastructure matures. 

3. Server Reset with Complete Data Wipe (Tamper Resistance + No Trace)To ensure that no biometric data is exploited later, Humanode’s CVM infrastructure goes through periodic server resets. These resets completely wipe all data, including all biometric information. This means users must re-verify when needed, but no biometric trace is ever left behind. It’s a hard privacy tradeoff, but it eliminates the risk of long-term data retention or leakage.

4. Sybil-Resistant, Anonymous Verification

Each human can link their biometrics to one account that too without revealing or having to tie it to their real-world identity. It’s basically verifying that you are unique without knowing who you are. It’s perfect for things like airdrops, DAO voting, whitelisting, or any application that requires implementation of Sybil resistance while still preserving anonymity.

Future Developments towards Decentralization

While developing an ecosystem that is secure, decentralized, and trustless is the ultimate, we acknowledge there are still developments needed to achieve that. And here are our plans for the future to make the Humanode ecosystem decentralized, more secure, and controlled by everyone, not by a few entities. 

1. Trustless CVMs

As mentioned, we plan to implement remote attestation for the CVMs, which will allow anyone to verify that the code running inside the CVM is what it is meant to be, in our case, to verify uniqueness. Read more about Humanode CVMs.

2. Decentralization of Biometric Verification Vendors and Addition of More Secure Biometric Modalities

While private biometric verification and liveness checks are being performed by a single vendor, our goal is to add more providers and build a system where the uniqueness and liveness check is provided by different vendors chosen randomly. This will make sure of two things: i. No one knows, not even Humanode, which vendor is used to verify your uniqueness ii. The verification process is decentralized and not reliant on a single provider.

Apart from this, we also envision adding more than one biometric modality for verification. This is to make sure the verification process is more accurate and secure.

3. Humanode Vortex: Decentralized Governance

In addition to its technical privacy guarantees, Humanode is also building Vortex: a decentralized governance system that shifts power away from any central authority. Its implementation has already started, aiming to ensure that decisions about the network, biometric data handling, and protocol upgrades are made collectively, not by a few.