E-passport- Can The Future Of Passports and when introduced

 In July 2016, the African Union unveiled its first electronic passport or E-passport. If all goes according to plan, these passports will be available to all AU citizens by 2018.AU leaders hope that e-passports will open up trade and travel between African countries, so what exactly is an E-passport?

What is E-Passport?

Well, An e-passport, also called a biometric or digital passport is embedded with a chip

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On that chip is all the information on a passport personal data page, like the cardholder's name,

physical appearance and date of birth. Some include other biometric data, like one’s photograph,

fingerprint and even their iris pattern.

Having this information digitized, rather than just printed, is designed to prevent identity fraud and

protect the privacy of the traveler. Although many countries are just now rolling out E-passports,

they’ve actually been around for almost two decades. 

When was e-passport introduced?

In fact, the first e-passport was introduced by Malaysia in 1998, as a local company was the first to

develop the technology. Interestingly, biometric data is also embedded in all of Malaysia's ID cards.

Future of Passport: E-Passport

E-Passport can be the future of passports. After the rollout proved successful, more and more

countries adopted the technology. And today, most of the world plans to or has already introduced

e-passports. The US began rolling out e-passports in 2006, and since 2007,it has issued them

exclusively. Their development came at the heels of the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry

Reform Act, or simply “Border Security Act”, which required all US entry ports to be equipped with

biometric scanners, and all visa-free travelers to have e-passports.

When was E-passport passed?

This law was passed in 2002, amid concerns for national security in light of the September 11th attacks.

In the African Union, the pivot toward e-passports is less about security and more about unification.

In 2015, Africa’s internal trade was just 11 per cent, the lowest in the world. Europe, by comparison, saw

internal trade at more than 60 per cent. Proponents of the e-passport argue that it will ease travel

between African countries, thus breaking down barriers on the free movement of labor and trade, and

strengthening some of the region’s, particularly vulnerable economies. But globalization may come at a

cost, as critics argue that e-passports have the potential to infringe on one’s personal privacy and

other civil liberties. 

Identity fraud by the third party

Shortly after the US announced their e-passport rollout, the ACLU published a formal opposition.

They argued that the non-encrypted data on the chip leaves one’s personal information

vulnerable to “third parties”, thus opening the door to identity fraud. Others have argued that the

idea of making one’s bodily characteristics “machine-readable” is problematic in itself, as it leaves a

huge margin for error. For example at a British airport in 2011,a couple who had mistakenly switched

passports still made it through security and facial recognition scanners. What’s more, an investigation

of Britain’s airports a year earlier revealed that biometric scanners had cleared five people on watch

lists, as well as a man using his sister's passport.

Thus, e-passports have been thrust into the larger debate over the importance of personal privacy

versus national security. And although they are quickly becoming the international norm, there

implementation is still a process of trial and error. E-passport or no, not every country is okay with you

having multiple passports, also called“dual citizenship”. Learn about where in the world dual citizenship

is banned, and why some countries aren't comfortable with the idea.

Tell me in the Comment box” What is your opinion about E-passport”

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