Biometric Passport

Smoother Travel With The Biometric Passport

Almost everyone has a passport these days, and with new technological advances it makes it easier to keep them from being stolen, forged or altered. One type of passport called the Biometric Passport uses a computer microchip and antenna. Embedded into the front and back of the card is all the personal information of the card holder.

Currently in place are iris identification, facial recognition and fingerprints although not all are used at the same time. Sometimes, a retinal scan is all that is required for identification. Biometric Passports use file formatting in addition to specific communication protocols for their passports. Because of their technological advances and a chip which stores a digital image, these passports may be eventually accepted worldwide.

One very smart thing about Biometric Passports is they have a detector in place that prevents tampering. There is simply no way the chip can be traced because each time the passport is used the chip changes numbers. Some civil rights activists are concerned that too much private information will be stored in the chips, thereby violating a person's privacy rights. Still, several countries already have the passport in place and prefer it to the former ones.

Australia uses the electronic facial recognition and notes how much more smoothly transition from one place to another has become for travelers. Canada uses a passport with digital photos and limited information about the holder but by 2012 they hope to have the electronic form similar to the Biometric Passport.

In the United States a seven year contract has been issued for the implementation of the Biometric Passport. This includes most of the hardware coming from IBM. UK citizens at this time are not required to carry a passport, but in the future, the United States would like to require a National Identification Card and the Biometric may be the bridge that links the two.

With anti-fraud and digital imaging and with a new design, the e-card or Biometric Passport is the wave of the future for those wishing to travel internationally or abroad through much quicker and smoother identifications and immigration inspections.