Tech & Biz

EU Approves Biometric Passports

by jordan | January 15, 2009 at 11:35 am

257 views | 17 Recommendations | 6 comments

European Parliament has agreed to introduce biometric passports, which will include citizens' fingerprints.

Those in favor of the switch have cited "security" as their rationale, but the actual security of biometric passports is far from given.

An overwhelming majority of members of the European Parliament supported the bill, making only modest changes to a proposal originally drawn up by the European Commission, the executive body of the E.U.

Civil liberties groups, however, have not jumped on the bandwagon.

Philosophically, they are opposed to the creation of a computer database containing so much personal information about innocent citizens. Technically, they argue that biometric passports are only as safe as the existing paper documents they will replace, and could even make it easier for criminals to travel across borders once they obtain false biometric IDs.

Unless the guy checking your passport on the train is prepared to fingerprint you right then and there, fingerprints on your passport are useless. It's a fairly safe assumption that intra-European ID checks will carry on as normal, with the only tangible result from the switch to biometrics being a massive-- and growing-- database of biomentric info on innocent people.

But it's important to understand their limitations as well as their strengths. On the strength side, biometrics are hard to forge. It's hard to affix a fake fingerprint to your finger or make your retina look like someone else's. [...]

On the other hand, biometrics are easy to steal. You leave your fingerprints everywhere you touch, your iris scan everywhere you look. Regularly, hackers have copied the prints of officials from objects they've touched, and posted them on the Internet.

(found via Slashdot)

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yuls.source

at 11:42 on January 15th, 2009

Great facts. Given the marginal security, is it worth the investment?

nyctuber

at 14:29 on January 15th, 2009

George Orwell, anyone?

Jennings David L

at 17:03 on January 15th, 2009

We are in too many databases as it is. Good report.

Paschen

at 17:06 on January 15th, 2009

I do not like it. What about those that are immortals, they certainly have a hart time now staying undiscovered. :) Just joking. still do not like it though, next think they implant nano probes in you.

hristinaninova

at 22:34 on January 15th, 2009

I do hope that this new measure will, if not eliminate thoroughly, at least temporarily decrease human traffic. This is a huge problem Europe does not pay enough attention to!!!And yes- it will not be long before the hackers start making prefect copies and fake passports but at the beginning this will be tough:)

Tavi

at 02:52 on January 16th, 2009

Bad news.

It's one step away from an RF Chip which is the goal of some political and banking interests.

How far away from a scanner do you need to be to have your retina scanned? Before long your location, your purchases, and your human relations will be tracked at all times if we let it happen.

This is bad news.