Paper passport dies

Within years, no matter where you live or travel, your face will likely be your new passport.

For centuries, people have used a form of passport while moving from one place to another. But widespread standardization of passports as we know them today did not really begin until then World War 1When passports were commonly used as a security measure and to deter spies entering the country. Until then, Consider some Passports are considered an “anachronism in the modern world.”

But the use of paper passports was the first They were digitized as “e-passports” using NFC chips in 2006– is slowly going through one of the biggest transformations yet. The travel industry, airports and governments are working to eliminate the need to show your passport while traveling internationally. Eventually, you may not need to carry your passport at all.

Instead, facial recognition and smartphone technology are increasingly being used to verify and confirm your identity against travel details before you can travel by plane. Proponents claim that these systems can reduce the amount of wait time and “friction” you experience at airports. But privacy experts warn that there is little transparency around the technologies being deployed, and that their spread could lead to data breaches and increased levels of surveillance.

The push to eliminate paper passports is happening around the world. So far airports in Finland, CanadaHolland, United Arab EmiratesUK, ItalyUS, IndiaElsewhere, various levels of travel have been tried without a passport or the technology to achieve it. In October, officials in Singapore Announce Its residents can travel by air to and from the country without using their documents, and foreign visitors can “enjoy the convenience of obtaining a passport-free pass when they leave Singapore.” Officials claim that more than 1.5 million people have used these systems.

“It will probably become the dominant way of traveling, as I understand it, in the near future,” says Athena Ioannou, a lecturer in business analytics at the University of Surrey in the UK, who has researched the privacy implications that come with different variations. Types of travel. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated contactless travel, and many efforts are driven by trying to get passengers moving quickly through airports, Ioannou says.

While trials around the world are at different stages and using different technical infrastructure, they work broadly in similar ways: information historically stored in your passport’s NFC chip, including facial data, is stored digitally and linked to your phone instead. The European Union plans to build Official travel app For this. When you’re at the airport, you can show the phone, and the facial recognition camera will try to match you to the passport photo.