In recent years, the UK Government has maintained a pledge to introduce a nation-wide biometric identity card system. It is an issue that has come up in particular in connection with the new anti-terror legislation enacted after the terrorist attacks in New York and London on 11/9/2001 and 7/7/2005 respectively. Aside from some public opposition to the scheme, there are a number of practical issues which must be addressed before there is any chance of this policy becoming a reality.
Biometric Identification Systems
The system proposed in the UK aims to fight identity theft and crime by increasing the precision of identification systems through biometrics. A biometric identification system involves recording part of an individual's physical characteristics, from relatively simple photographic facial mapping to fingerprint recognition and iris scanning. Behavioural characteristics such as voice recognition and signature verification can also be recorded for a biometric ID. These unique individual characteristics are compressed into a single line of binary, which can be stored in a central database and referred back to in order to identify the individual, for example at an airport or hospital.
Current Prevalence of Fake IDs
As of October 2008, the British government estimated that there were around 200,000 fraudulent identity documents in circulation in the UK, in the form of passports and driver's licences. This shows up one of the reasons for bringing in a more precise identification system, but also reveals a potential problem - the prevalence of fake IDs at present means that it is not possible to be 100% certain about an individual's identity at the point when they apply for a biometric ID. The problems in the current system may leave the future one open to possible abuse.
Problems of Interoperability
One of the largest hurdles facing the system is that of interoperability. ‘Interoperability’ is concerned with how the processes, devices and systems involved in the identification process interact with one another; how the process of (for example) a thumbprint being scanned at one end of the system translates into the correct data being found in a database and relayed back to the source for verification.
This problem is magnified if applied on a more worldwide scale, as would be the case with biometric passports - systems in every country in the world would need to be compatible to a pre-set international standard, despite presumably being designed and manufactured by different companies.
Also, it should be considered that different countries will take biometrics to a different scale, due to both financial and political reasons - a rich country like the US may be able to afford fingerprint or iris scanning on all of their passports. This has a knock-on effect throughout the system, as even if a poorer country simply incorporates facial recognition scanning in their passport photos, they still would need the technology at their airports to receive the more complex US passports.
The Cost of ID Cards
Worldwide interoperability leads into another concern many have raised about biometric identification - cost. Beyond the material cost of the technology and equipment, there's the logistical cost of organising and registering the world's citizenry into this central database. The initial costs for the UK’s system alone were officially stated to be £5.8 billion by the government, but a London School of Economics investigation in 2005 estimated that the true cost could run as high as £18 billion. This would put the cost to the individual citizen at around £300 each, significantly higher than the government’s £93 estimate.
Legal Problems with ID Database
There are also problems within the legal system which would need to be addressed before a biometric identification system could be introduced. The current set of UK data protection laws were not designed with any kind of biometric ID card or database scheme in mind, and as such are lacking in specific legislation to protect the data. The law as it stands does allow for the implementation of an ID card scheme, but fresh legislation needs to be drafted to ensure the safety of biometric data; questions also arise over how the data is to be used, and whether the subjects of the data have intellectual property rights over it.
It is clear that there are a host of practical problems, from the technological to the financial, which must be overcome before a fully biometric identity card system will be possible in the UK and beyond - and this is before public opposition is even taken into account. This suggests that it may be some time yet until the system is fully enacted.
References:
Lyon, David, Surveillance Studies: an overview, Polity Press, Cambridge, 2007
Stalder, F & Lyon, D, ‘Electronic identity cards and social classification’ from Lyon, D (ed.) Surveillance as social sorting: privacy, risk and digital discrimination pp. 77-93, Routledge, London, 2003
Philip Sim - Philip Sim is a trainee journalist based in Aberdeen, Scotland. He graduated from the University of Dundee in 2009 with an honours degree ...
Join the Conversation