Biometrics industry enters another identity crisis

A vote last week by the US Senate to delay deadlines for machine- readable passports using biometric identifiers for another year will frustrate a fledgling biometrics industry eager to implement the biggest global technology project since the Y2K glitch, writes Karlin Lillington

The International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO) had recommended the original implementation deadline of October 26th be postponed for a year.

When the technology is eventually implemented, it will affect passports for the 27 so-called "visa waiver" countries - those whose citizens don't need visas in order to travel to the US.

Both Houses of Congress approved the delay. But President George W Bush had wanted the deadline extended for two years, underlining doubts voiced by analysts about the readiness of both the technologies and the logistics of managing them on a global scale.

"I still have serious reservations about the maturity of biometric technologies. They may be mature enough by the time 'everyone' has a biometric passport, but the technologies actually used in those passports will then be several years old," says Mr Anthony Allan, research director in London at industry analyst Gartner Group.

"It's not clear what thought has gone into future-proofing the passport systems," he says.

But deadlines have not been moved because of limitations within the technologies, but because of the difficulty countries, including the US, are having in implementing the systems and figuring out how to manage them.

"Part of the problem seems to be inflated expectations," says Mr Allan.

A lot of the problems discovered during the UK Passport Service trials seem to be very obvious ones that should have been anticipated.

How passports are to be issued, for example, has not been resolved anywhere in Europe, including Ireland, where the Government is conducting a study into implementing a biometric passport system.

The ICAO, which sets international standards, determined in May that all biometric passports should include face-recognition technology and perhaps a second biometric.

This decision was endorsed and adopted by the EU in June. In Europe, the second biometric is likely to be either a fingerprint or iris scan, according to the Irish Passport Office.

Right now, passport applicants in Ireland and the UK need not make applications in person and can post in a photo. But with biometric passports, identity would have to be formally verified and matched to verified scans.

It is unclear how and where people would have their scans done for their passports, and whether the Passport Office would perform these scans.

However, the Passport Office has considered the format for the passports. From this autumn, Irish passports will have a hard plastic polycarbonate page that will be laser-etched with personal data, according to a Passport Office spokeswoman.

The passports will be able to incorporate the new biometric identifiers, although the spokeswoman says it will likely be the end of next year before biometrics start going into passports.

Meanwhile, technology companies are hoping for a piece of a market predicted to be worth $4 billion (3.3 billion) by 2007, given the implementation-fest that will happen as international systems come online.

There's much opportunity for technologists: the biometric market is dominated by many small companies vying to have their products and methods become standards (lack of standards and interoperability was cited by the United States as a reason for postponing deadlines).

While technology giants such as Unisys, IBM and Motorola are offering biometric technologies and services - Unisys has a major passport scanning system up and running in Brazilian airports, for instance - they have very few home-grown offerings.

They tend to partner or buy up the minnows that have specialised in what were widely viewed as boutique technologies with niche uses until September 11th, 2001.

European insiders say the process of implementing an EU-wide border control and biometric passport system is in confusion, with battles looming over privacy issues and the purposes of having a global system.

US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell and Homeland Security Secretary Mr Tom Ridge acknowledged that more time was needed for to overcome technology and privacy issues before bringing in biometric security systems.

"One of the areas which may be an issue is potential function creep. For example, if everyone's fingerprints are recorded and if images are kept, can that database be used for forensics?" asks Mr Allan.

European countries have another year in which to attempt to resolve such issues, but Mr Allan warns that further delays are likely.