“It’s like saying ‘towns on the coast’ when you’re trying to talk about ‘ports’, which are one type of town on the coast,” says Guy Herbert, general secretary of NO2ID, a British ex-pat campaign group fighting to restrict the use of biometric technology. “The word ‘ports’ itself is only generic; think how many different ones – and coastlines – there are,” he adds.<\/p>\n
“It’s not that we’re against the use of any kind of biometric technology, so long as it’s used for an appropriate purpose, and it’s a closed system,” he says, offering as an example access control for a bonded warehouse. “Biometrics can restrict access to people who are supposed to get in, and information about individuals isn’t sent anywhere else,” he says. “The same is true of my access to my laptop; the laptop contains only one thumbprint, and that’s not shared with anyone else.”<\/p>\n
Mr Herbert’s group contends that biometric data capture is only partly about security, but is also about tracking and gathering information about travellers and port workers going about their legitimate business.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, it’s devalued as a value security tool, he says, if all of the world’s governments don’t use the same system, since security information can’t be shared. In itself that means information about any individual is likely to be captured repeatedly, with multiple sets of data held around the world. “That’s especially true for ships’ crews. If they’re to go ashore in a port that uses any kind of biometric system, they’ll need to have data collected every time. Officials based in every port will collect it on behalf of their own government; it can be transferred to foreign governments; multiple sets of data increase the chance of it being lost or stolen; who knows where the information might end up.”<\/p>\n
And it’s far from clear how governments will exchange data, as they surely must if global security is to be maintained. Mr Herbert cites the example of America’s VISIT scheme, which checks two fingerprints of all visitors entering the country, but uses technology incompatible with that used by the same country’s FBI.<\/p>\n
Says Mr Herbert: “Biometric data capture has its place; much of it would be approved of by security experts, but as an excuse to secure much more unnecessary data about people it is completely unacceptable. For example, all any government or port authority needs to be certain of is that I don’t have a rucksack full of explosives, and that I don’t intend to sink the ferry.”<\/p>\n
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