European Union governments last week agreed to embed computer chips containing biometric data in passports.

The plans to create passports carrying information on a person's fingerprint or retinal scans are presented as a way to reduce counterfeiting and fraud. Biometric chips would also be implanted in visas issued to foreign nationals travelling to Europe.

The idea, backed by €140m in EU funding for a feasibility study, was put forward as part of a raft of measures designed to "co-ordinate the European Union's immigration policy" at a summit in Greece last week.

The US is the main driver for biometric passports, the International Herald Tribune reports (http://www.iht.com/articles/100310.html).

A European Commission official told the paper that EU governments are bound by a timetable set out by the US government after September 11.

Under the US Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002, countries whose citizens enjoy visa-free travel to the United States "must issue passports with biometric identifiers no later than Oct. 26, 2004," the IHT reports.

"The solution which is mostly likely is a chip in the passport containing fingerprints and eye scans," Pietro Petrucci, an EC spokesman told the paper.

Privacy activists are concerned (http://www.statewatch.org/news/2003/jun/22bio.htm) about the lack of openness by governments on what data the chip might contain. If our own Home Secretary (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/30843.html) and Foreign Secretary are anything to go by, European governments are unlikely to pay much heed to such concerns.

Leaps and bounds

Biometric technology is developing apace. This month, a security specialist from BT's research arm BTExact showed us a prototype of a biometric passport. The sample, which he obtained through attending a conference on biometrics, contained details of his fingerprints within a chip with a hologram picture of his face embossed on same sheet within a passport.

It's unclear when biometric passports for Europeans will be introduced but signs are it will be far earlier than the 2006 introduction (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/24151.html) the UK Passport Service was talking about last year.

Meanwhile there's no talk yet about any insistence about biometric passports for Americans travelling to Europe.

Funny that. ®

External Links

Links to documents from the summit, via Statewatch (http://www.statewatch.org/news/2003/jun/18summit.htm)

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