Out-Law News 3 min. read

A close encounter with biometrics


The UK Government has begun its trial of a biometric passport scheme. Here, Duncan Drury, a volunteer for the scheme and a member of NO2ID, a coalition opposing the current ID card proposals, describes his experiences for OUT-LAW.COM.
The UK Government has begun its trial of a biometric passport scheme. Here, Duncan Drury, a volunteer for the scheme and a member of NO2ID, a coalition opposing the current ID card proposals, describes his experiences for OUT-LAW.COM.

Image of Duncan Drury's biometric ID card (front)

It is with a mixture of techie glee and Orwellian paranoia that I present myself at the UK Passport Service offices for the Biometrics Enrolment trial – part of preparations for the Government's controversial National ID Cards scheme. I enrolled to learn more about what could amount to the greatest intrusion of Government into our lives since conscription ended in 1960. I hope the government doesn't construe this as supporting ID cards.

I join a queue of mainly nervous passport applicants that snakes through the foyer leading to metal detectors and x-ray machines. The lady from MORI brings in someone off the street – the trial is several thousand people short and needs to make up numbers to be considered valid.

While I wait I read the background material – thankfully it discloses that all biometrics will be destroyed at the end of the trial, a relief considering the controversial retention of DNA records from innocent people on the National DNA Database. There is no reason for my fingerprints to be in the police database.

After the demographics section of the questionnaire comes the meat of the trial – being registered, counted, measured, numbered etc. in a booth containing the biometricisation hardware. The operator checks my details and I am alarmed to see her enter my name and the code from my questionnaire – "I thought that was anonymous" I say. "It's only for the card" she says. I let it go.

First up is facial recognition. I look into the Panasonic BM-ET300 and hear a shutter sound played. "Is this picture ok?" the operator asks – it looks a little distorted, like web cam shots of red eyed programmers sitting at their computers long into the night. "Yeah, fine" I say.

Iris scanning comes next – I am to line up my eyes in the mirror of the BM-ET300. The machine bleats out instructions in a robotic female voice reminiscent of the computer in Alien – "move back slightly, left, right slightly, forward slightly". I am confused yet the operator defers to the machine – "Just follow the machine's instructions".

Eventually I figure out that the circle in the centre of the mirror is a target – one eye should be centred on that. The shutter sound plays, and I have been iris scanned. I am sure that only my left eye has been taken, but the machine thinks otherwise, and we don't argue with the machine.

We sit and drum our fingers as communication is attempted between the UKPS and Atos Origin's server in Andover. Thrice it fails, and the operator decides to skip the retina scan. I won't be able to find out if my iris matches one of the others on the database, and I won't have a complete biometrics card.

Now I place my fingertips on the glass screen of an Identix TouchPrint 3100. Each print is checked for quality, and against a dummy database in Andover. This time there is no network problem, and I have passed the test –no one else is running around with my fingerprints, as far as they know.

Finally the operator asks me to sign my name on an LCD screen, which will also be stored on the card.

I return to the queuing room to complete the questionnaire – am I more or less concerned about biometrics now I have gone through the process? Do I think that ID cards will protect us from terrorism, illegal working, identity fraud?

Moments later my ID card is ready. The operator asks me which verification I would like to try –I opt for facial recognition, the least reliable of the biometrics. I sit down in front of another Panasonic device, a photo is taken, and my card is plugged into a reader. The operator turns her screen around to show me the picture from my card, with the reassuring word "Verified" in green underneath.

I am a valid human being - at least for the period of the trial.

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