Campaigners fight biometric passports
By John Leyden
Posted: 29/03/2004 at 14:50 GMT
The Register Mobile: Find out what the fuss is about. Take the two
week trial today.
Civil liberties and privacy groups have launched a campaign against
airline industry plans to create a massive international database of
passport holders tied together with "flawed" biometric technology.
A global biometric identity system being established on behalf of
governments by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
poses a grave threat to civil liberties, privacy activists warn.
Critics have drafted an open letter expressing concerns over plans to
mandate the use of biometrics and RFID (radio frequency) technology
in all future passports. The controversial measures are due to be
finalised at an ICAO meeting in Cairo this week.
The face doesn't fit
ICAO has decided that the initial international biometric standard
for passports will be facial mapping. Fingerprinting may come later.
The EU is already calling for fingerprints to be included, along with
an associated European register of all biometrics. National
authorities will store and share these vast data reserves.
The measures, supported by the US and the EU, will ultimately create
an ID database comprising hundreds of millions of travellers. The
details on more than a billion passengers would be computerised and
shared globally by 2015 if the plan goes ahead, according to critics
such as Privacy International.
It complains that "despite serious implications for privacy and
personal security, the process is occurring without public engagement
or debate".
The legislative pieces for the ICAO system are already in place. The
USA-PATRIOT Act, passed by Congress after the events of September
2001, included the requirement that the President certify a biometric
technology standard for use in identifying foreigners seeking
admission into the US, within two years. The schedule for its
implementation was accelerated by another piece of legislation, the
little known Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act 2002.
This required Western countries to comply with the US-inspired
biometric push by 24 October this year or else lose the right for
their citizens to visit the US without obtaining a visa beforehand.
These laws gave momentum to the standards that were being considered
at the ICAO by requiring visa waiver countries (which include many EU
countries, Australia, Brunei, Iceland, Japan, Monaco, New Zealand,
Norway, Singapore, and Slovenia) to implement biometrics into their
passports.
Joined-up surveillance
An open letter, signed by Privacy International and the American
Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and others,
warns: "We are increasingly concerned that the biometric travel
document initiative is part and parcel of a larger surveillance
infrastructure monitoring the movement of individuals globally that
includes Passenger-Name Record transfers, API systems and the
creation of an intergovernmental network of interoperable electronic
data systems to facilitate access to each country's law enforcement
and intelligence information."
Privacy International has warned of "unprecedented" security threats
that could arise from the plan because of potential access by
terrorists and organised crime to this database. Furthermore, the
biometric standard being adopted is "fundamentally flawed" and will
result in a substantial number of passengers being falsely identified
as potential terrorists or wrongly accused of holding fraudulent
passports.
Dr Gus Hosein, Senior Fellow with Privacy International, warned:
"This is a potentially perilous plan. The ICAO must go back to the
drawing board or hold itself responsible for creating the first truly
global biometric database".
"Governments may claim that they are under an international
obligation to create national databases of fingerprints and face
scans but we will soon see nations with appalling human rights
records generating massive databases, and then requiring our own
fingerprints and face-scans as we travel." ®
Related stories
EU Commission plots global travel surveillance system
US cybercrime push 'imperils personal security' of Americans
EC wants biometrics on passports
US names the day for biometric passports
Smart cards, ID cards, nice, nasty, inevitable?
US using EU airline data to 'test' CAPPS II snoop system
EU rattles sabres over US use of airline passenger data
External Links
The open letter (PDF) and a background information package from
Privacy International.
---
* Origin: [adminz] tech, security, support (192.168.0.2)
generated by msg2page 0.06 on Jul 21, 2006 at 19:04:17
search: