Futuristic Mexican Trackers.
The possible use of biometric ID in the US warranted only an occasional brief mention in the spring of this year:
but now the US is pimping it full force. The US now talks of biometric ID as an integral part of its forthcoming immigration policies including a newly proposed global immigration database. To be perfectly clear, this is nothing less than a global biometric database being pushed by the world's superpowers. The Register mentions the database being promoted as a way "to stop criminals and other undesirable migrants at a vast, biometric border that is likely to include, at the very least, the EU countries, Australia, and Canada." Although, I have the feeling that such a database is news to most Canadians.
Troy Potter, the biometrics programme manager for the US Department of Homeland Security's biometric border control programme, hints that the US will be seeking to standardize immigration laws and implementation among the involved countries. The US has already succesfully linked police databases with the UK in an experimental intelligence sharing project. The question of whether such a global biometric database is possible is not an issue; the only question is how soon governments can agree on the standards which would allow this to happen.
Read the full Register article on the international immigration database here.
Read a Telegraph report on developments in biometric ID in the UK here. I have to say, the UK is really ahead of even the United States in this regard. Against tremendous public outcry, within the next two years the government plans to implement ID cards which "are likely to contain data including 10 fingerprints, two iris scans and a face scan." All to magically stop terrorism. Hats off, British law makers!
but now the US is pimping it full force. The US now talks of biometric ID as an integral part of its forthcoming immigration policies including a newly proposed global immigration database. To be perfectly clear, this is nothing less than a global biometric database being pushed by the world's superpowers. The Register mentions the database being promoted as a way "to stop criminals and other undesirable migrants at a vast, biometric border that is likely to include, at the very least, the EU countries, Australia, and Canada." Although, I have the feeling that such a database is news to most Canadians.
Troy Potter, the biometrics programme manager for the US Department of Homeland Security's biometric border control programme, hints that the US will be seeking to standardize immigration laws and implementation among the involved countries. The US has already succesfully linked police databases with the UK in an experimental intelligence sharing project. The question of whether such a global biometric database is possible is not an issue; the only question is how soon governments can agree on the standards which would allow this to happen.
Read the full Register article on the international immigration database here.
Read a Telegraph report on developments in biometric ID in the UK here. I have to say, the UK is really ahead of even the United States in this regard. Against tremendous public outcry, within the next two years the government plans to implement ID cards which "are likely to contain data including 10 fingerprints, two iris scans and a face scan." All to magically stop terrorism. Hats off, British law makers!
posted by aaron at 10.12.06
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