What Is A Digital Passport And How Could It Change Travel?

E-passport via publishing.service.gov.uk

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?

Well, an e-passport, also called a biometric or digital passport, is embedded with a chip. On that chip is all the information on a passport’s personal data page, like the card holder’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.

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

Travel free without border via traveldudes.org

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 percent, the lowest in the world. Europe, by comparison, saw internal trade at more than 60 percent. Proponents of the e-passport argue that it will ease travel between African countries, thus breaking down barriers on 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. 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, their 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.

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