http://online.wsj.com/article/SB112653733258238045.html


Biometrics: A New Frontier For Global Border Security
By Lorin Kavanaugh Ulku
The Wall Street Journal, October 17, 2005


Long the stuff of sci-fi cinema and corporate labs, biometric technology will soon make its real-world debut in people's pockets. As early as November, more than 40 nations will begin issuing passports that have a record of unique physiological traits embedded on a microchip, in a post-9/11 effort to prevent document fraud and verify identity.

Dubbed the e-passport, the enhanced documents would eventually have digitalized fingerprints, photos and even eye scans that customs officials could use to prevent people from crossing borders with forged papers. The Bush administration and Congress have promoted the idea as one of the most important elements in the fight against terrorism among the program's mostly Western participants.

But it's not without controversy. The American Civil Liberties Union, London-based Privacy International and other advocacy groups have filed complaints with the United Nations arm responsible for creating passport standards, asking for a complete reassessment of current e-passport policies. In the U.S., the prospect of having personal information embedded on such readable chips has provoked more than 2,000 complaints posted on the State Department's e-passport Web site. Elsewhere, the initiative in the U.K. has sparked intense internal deliberation, particularly because the passport represents just half of a project that includes a biometrically enhanced and compulsory national ID card.

Most of the objections to the e-passport program focus on the security concerns of keeping personal information on a microchip, and how that data is stored and used by government agencies. These and other issues will be discussed at biometrics conference in London this week. Further complicating matters is the fact that biometrics are associated with the likes of 'Mission Impossible' and James Bond, leaving the public with much confusion about biometric passports and what they are supposed to do.

Biometrics are, in the words of the National Security Agency, 'automated methods of recognizing a person based on physiological or behavioral characteristics.' One of the first examples of recent biometric use in border security is the Department of Homeland Security's US-VISIT program, which collects the fingerprints and digital photographs of all foreigners arriving on American soil. Since its implementation in January 2004, more than 28 million people have been registered in the system and, according to former DHS official Stewart Verdery, the program has prevented 600 from entering the U.S.

The U.S. government has tightened the passport requirements for all European and other allied countries whose nationals can currently enter the U.S. without a visa. Starting Oct. 26, they must have machine-readable passports, and they must have biometrically enhanced e-passports by Oct. 26 of next year. But the ambitions of the e-passport program have been scaled way back since its conception four years ago. Officials had hoped to include both facial and fingerprint data on the first generation of e-passports, but the International Civil Aviation Organization -- the United Nations agency charged with setting standards for the new passports -- had to settle for just a digital photo of the face. (See related graphic.)

FEARS OF BIG BROTHER

The e-passport's main goal is to diminish the threat of terrorism by making it harder for people to illegally cross borders. But some civil-liberties advocates -- however much they praise that goal -- say current e-passport plans pose another threat.

TESTING THE TECHNOLOGY

See more on the role of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in getting biometrics on passports.

The chips implanted in the passports will transmit personal data by radio frequency to electronic scanners at airports and ports of entry. Privacy advocates are concerned that thieves could use handheld readers to 'skim' the radio-frequency identification, or RFID, chips in the passports, making Americans traveling overseas vulnerable to identification theft. This spring, tests conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology concluded the data on a radio-frequency chip could be read at a distance of 24 inches, not the four inches that State Department officials had previously asserted. The American Civil Liberties Union and others are also concerned about what happens to the data once it is collected and stored.

'The RFID chip in the passports can enable a form of global tracking that is really quite unprecedented,' said Barry Steinhardt, an ACLU associate director who deals with technological issues. The fears include the possibility that retailers or other businesses -- as well as governments -- could intercept the data to track individuals' movements for marketing reasons. And these come on top of worries that the signals could be used to track Americans by terrorists or others with sinister intentions. As it is, advocacy group Privacy International predicted the program could create a global database of more than a billion people by 2015.

The U.S. e-passport will include 'anti-skimming materials' in order to reduce the risk of unauthorized reading or tracking, like metal shields and additional encryption, Frank E. Moss, deputy secretary for passport services at the U.S. Department of State, said in a speech in June. But it isn't clear yet whether the changes will appease the system's critics. (Return to the top)

WHO, WHERE, WHEN

With about 40 countries looking to implement biometric passport programs, the form and function of each initiative varies widely. Here's a closer look at what the U.S. and three close allies are planning.