Biometric Passports and Facial Recognition

An announcement by the Department of State that it will move to the use of passports that contain a chip with facial recognition data has prompted a series of complaints from privacy advocates and technologists. The principle concern is that facial recognition systems have a high error rate and that State would be better off if it used fingerprints in the new passports.

The recommendation to rely on fingerprints is, unfortunately, divorced from reality. For many people, being fingerprinted is something reserved for criminals. Most Americans have not been fingerprinted and are unlikely to respond favorably to proposals that they allow the Federal government to fingerprint them. In contrast, people are used to and accept being photographed for passports or drivers licenses. Fingerprinting also faces resistance overseas. European privacy groups have come out against biometric passports that use fingerprinting. The U.S. recently began to fingerprint foreign visitors. The result has been outrage from foreign governments and a fall in tourists coming to the U.S. in part due to the new requirement.