Biometric Passports

The British have kicked the tires and are now taking their biometric passport scheme out for a test drive. The UK Passport service is hoping that 10,000 Brits will volunteer to get their irises, fingerprints and facial biometrics recorded as part of a trial for the new passport. Authorities believe that biometric passports will deter identity theft linked to organized crime, illegals entering the country, benefit fraud, and terrorism.

Rather than a feasibility study, the trial of the passport system appears to be more for data collection to facilitate development of a workable and reliable technology. In other words, the project is still largely at the idea stage with many unanswered questions. Experts in the field of information engineering recently expressed the same opinion.

As an aside, I always thought 'information engineering' was a euphemism for lying. Apparently, it's a real discipline and an actual field of study. Ya' learn something new every day.