deldaley
08-03-2008, 01:07 PM
Millions of passengers to undergo fingerprinting in security crackdown at Heathrow's Terminal 5
Millions of domestic air passengers will have to undergo fingerprint and biometric checks before being allowed to board flights from the new Heathrow Terminal 5.
All passengers on internal flights leaving the terminal, which will open later this month, will have to submit to the checks as part of enhanced security measures.
The rules on domestic flights have been in place at Gatwick since the start of February and will also apply to Heathrow's Terminal 1 later this year.
Terminal 5
http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/09_04/airport270907_468x303.jpg
Passengers leaving on fights from Heathrow Terminal 5 must now undergo fingerprinting as part of enhanced security measures at the airport
Passengers who take such flights from both airports will have to be photographed at check-in and give four fingerprints on a pad at a special station before passing through security.
The process will be repeated just before getting on the plane to ensure it is the same person boarding. Airport staff will also check the photograph against the person's face.
BAA, which runs the airports, said the move was necessary to stop criminals, terrorists and immigrants getting around border controls.
It insists the data will be destroyed after 24 hours and will not be handed to police, although experts claim it could be used as a "'rich source" for intelligence agencies.
BAA says the biometric checks are necessary because domestic and international passengers are not segregated at Terminal 1 and Gatwick.
Passengers will also not be spilit up at Terminal 5, which will carry all British Airways flights.
The Spanish-owned company insists it won't be possible for someone in transit or on an international flight to swap boarding passes in the departure lounge with a passenger on a domestic flight who had already checked in.
The person could then get on to an internal flight, for which he or she would only have to show his boarding pass, fly on to another UK airport and leave without going through passport control.
Staff at Gatwick and Heathrow's Terminal 1 are currently getting round the problem by photographing all passengers as they go through security and checking the picture against the face at the departure gate.
But BAA has deemed this insufficient. Gatwick introduced the measures on February 1.
Fingerprinting is already carried out in some foreign airports such as in the US, but a BAA spokesman said this is a first in the UK.
Dr Gus Hosein, of the London School of Economics, an expert on the impact of technology on civil liberties, is harshly critical of the scheme.
He said: "BAA says the fingerprint data will be destroyed, but the records of who has travelled within the country will not be, and it will provide a rich source of data for intelligence agencies.
"By doing this they will make innocent people feel like criminals.
"There will be a suspicion that this is the thin end of the wedge, that we are being softened up by making fingerprinting seem normal in the run-up to things like ID cards."
Simon Davies, of the campaign group Privacy International, said a photograph alone was sufficient and cheaper.
He said: "If they are photographing people anyway, why can't that be used as a means of identification?
"It would probably be 50 times more reliable and a 50th of the cost.
"Fingerprint recognition technology is far from perfect and the experience in the US has show the information can only be used retrospectively, not in real time, as it takes so long to match a fingerprint to the one on the database."
A spokesman for BAA said the fingerprinting scheme was introduced in cooperation with the Home Office.
He said: "As international and domestic passengers will mix in the common lounge we are required, for border control purposes, to capture photo image and fingerprints of departing domestic passengers.
"At the gate, this data is reconciled to confirm the passengers' identity and ensures that UK border control regulations are met.
"The data is encrypted immediately and is destroyed within 24 hours of use, in accordance with the UK Data Protection Act 1998.
"The data captured does not include personal details nor is it cross referenced with any other data base."
Nobody from the Home Office was available for comment.
More than nine million domestic passengers pass through Terminal 1 each year, of which four million will be handled by Terminal 5 when it opens.
A BAA spokesman said he did not know how much the scheme would cost.
More than 50 per cent of countries have compulsory fingerprinting forms as part of their own UK visa application process.
From the bbc website 2004 this is all been part of the nwo plan for years
I've got a biometric ID card'
By Tom Geoghegan
BBC News Online
Biometric testing of face, eye and fingerprints could soon be used on every resident of the UK to create compulsory identity cards. BBC News Online's Tom Geoghegan volunteered for a pilot scheme and looked, unblinking, into the future.
As I was led up to the first floor of the UK Passport Office in London's Victoria, the butterflies I used to get at the dentist began to flutter.
But as it turned out, the photo booth we passed on the way would have provided a more invasive exercise.
The simple 15-minute process to get my own identity card simulates what probably lies ahead for everyone.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39943000/jpg/_39943842_card_bbc203.jpg
Your life on a chip....within minutes
Biometric tests are likely to be introduced for all new driving licences and passports from 2007. They could become compulsory six years later.
Explaining the purpose of the six-month pilot schemes being held across the UK, the Home Office's Peter Wilson said: "This isn't a test of the technology - that's likely to change in the future as things move on - it's the process.
"We're looking for customer reactions and perceptions, and any particular difficulties."
I was greeted in a reception area for enrolment, which consisted of filling out a form with basic information about myself such as gender, age, postcode and ethnic background.
Then I gave the form and my name to operator Rachel Davies, who fed the information into a computer.
I was ushered into a room and directed to sit in a sophisticated-looking booth, facing a hi-tech camera. No going back now.
The first test is the facial recognition, which is like a prolonged photograph without the flash.
Big Brother
No cheesy grins will be allowed, because the machine is scanning the measurements of your face and "doesn't like teeth".
BIOMETRIC PILOT SCHEMES
Target of 10,000 volunteers
No figures yet, but more than 16,000 have shown an interest
All details are destroyed and feedback anonymous
Set in London, Glasgow and Leicester, plus a mobile facility travelling the UK
Aims to identify any practical difficulties and give a cost projection of full scheme
Current cost predicted £1.3bn to £3.1bn
The iris scan required more concentration because I had to stare hypnotically at two ellipses in the camera, while the machine verbally directed me.
"Come closer," says a Big Brother-like voice, instructing me to shuffle my seat forward while keeping my eyes fixed on the shapes.
After about 60 seconds, the machine indicated the scanning was complete.
No messy carbon required for the fingerprints. Instead I had to put each hand's four fingers, then the thumb, on a glass scanner.
My prints appeared on a computer screen and within minutes were compared against one million others which, for the sake of the pilot scheme, had been imported from the US.
ID CARDS TIMETABLE
Nov 2003: Draft Bill published
Apr 2004: Pilot schemes begin
Autumn 2004: White Paper in Parliament
2005: Facial biometrics used on passports (scanned from passport photograph)
2007: New passports and driving licences to require biometrics, separate ID cards optional
2013: Parliament to vote on making it compulsory for all to have some form of biometric ID
With all three tests completed, I had to give a copy of my signature which they stored electronically.
I filled out a feedback form about my experience and then the card was ready and in my hands.
It's strange to think that the identity card's small microchip contains some personal information and my biometrics.
Although I don't feel psychologically invaded or like an android - as I feared I might - I can understand why others might.
Another simple fingerprint test verifies that I match the card and that's it, over.
If the government gets its way, the information on the chip would also be stored on a national identity register, accessible to the police, government departments, the Inland Revenue, immigration and intelligence services.
No wonder as I leave, a member of staff jokes: "We'll be tracking you."
Time to take a stand or we will have no liberty left !!!!!!!!
Millions of domestic air passengers will have to undergo fingerprint and biometric checks before being allowed to board flights from the new Heathrow Terminal 5.
All passengers on internal flights leaving the terminal, which will open later this month, will have to submit to the checks as part of enhanced security measures.
The rules on domestic flights have been in place at Gatwick since the start of February and will also apply to Heathrow's Terminal 1 later this year.
Terminal 5
http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/09_04/airport270907_468x303.jpg
Passengers leaving on fights from Heathrow Terminal 5 must now undergo fingerprinting as part of enhanced security measures at the airport
Passengers who take such flights from both airports will have to be photographed at check-in and give four fingerprints on a pad at a special station before passing through security.
The process will be repeated just before getting on the plane to ensure it is the same person boarding. Airport staff will also check the photograph against the person's face.
BAA, which runs the airports, said the move was necessary to stop criminals, terrorists and immigrants getting around border controls.
It insists the data will be destroyed after 24 hours and will not be handed to police, although experts claim it could be used as a "'rich source" for intelligence agencies.
BAA says the biometric checks are necessary because domestic and international passengers are not segregated at Terminal 1 and Gatwick.
Passengers will also not be spilit up at Terminal 5, which will carry all British Airways flights.
The Spanish-owned company insists it won't be possible for someone in transit or on an international flight to swap boarding passes in the departure lounge with a passenger on a domestic flight who had already checked in.
The person could then get on to an internal flight, for which he or she would only have to show his boarding pass, fly on to another UK airport and leave without going through passport control.
Staff at Gatwick and Heathrow's Terminal 1 are currently getting round the problem by photographing all passengers as they go through security and checking the picture against the face at the departure gate.
But BAA has deemed this insufficient. Gatwick introduced the measures on February 1.
Fingerprinting is already carried out in some foreign airports such as in the US, but a BAA spokesman said this is a first in the UK.
Dr Gus Hosein, of the London School of Economics, an expert on the impact of technology on civil liberties, is harshly critical of the scheme.
He said: "BAA says the fingerprint data will be destroyed, but the records of who has travelled within the country will not be, and it will provide a rich source of data for intelligence agencies.
"By doing this they will make innocent people feel like criminals.
"There will be a suspicion that this is the thin end of the wedge, that we are being softened up by making fingerprinting seem normal in the run-up to things like ID cards."
Simon Davies, of the campaign group Privacy International, said a photograph alone was sufficient and cheaper.
He said: "If they are photographing people anyway, why can't that be used as a means of identification?
"It would probably be 50 times more reliable and a 50th of the cost.
"Fingerprint recognition technology is far from perfect and the experience in the US has show the information can only be used retrospectively, not in real time, as it takes so long to match a fingerprint to the one on the database."
A spokesman for BAA said the fingerprinting scheme was introduced in cooperation with the Home Office.
He said: "As international and domestic passengers will mix in the common lounge we are required, for border control purposes, to capture photo image and fingerprints of departing domestic passengers.
"At the gate, this data is reconciled to confirm the passengers' identity and ensures that UK border control regulations are met.
"The data is encrypted immediately and is destroyed within 24 hours of use, in accordance with the UK Data Protection Act 1998.
"The data captured does not include personal details nor is it cross referenced with any other data base."
Nobody from the Home Office was available for comment.
More than nine million domestic passengers pass through Terminal 1 each year, of which four million will be handled by Terminal 5 when it opens.
A BAA spokesman said he did not know how much the scheme would cost.
More than 50 per cent of countries have compulsory fingerprinting forms as part of their own UK visa application process.
From the bbc website 2004 this is all been part of the nwo plan for years
I've got a biometric ID card'
By Tom Geoghegan
BBC News Online
Biometric testing of face, eye and fingerprints could soon be used on every resident of the UK to create compulsory identity cards. BBC News Online's Tom Geoghegan volunteered for a pilot scheme and looked, unblinking, into the future.
As I was led up to the first floor of the UK Passport Office in London's Victoria, the butterflies I used to get at the dentist began to flutter.
But as it turned out, the photo booth we passed on the way would have provided a more invasive exercise.
The simple 15-minute process to get my own identity card simulates what probably lies ahead for everyone.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39943000/jpg/_39943842_card_bbc203.jpg
Your life on a chip....within minutes
Biometric tests are likely to be introduced for all new driving licences and passports from 2007. They could become compulsory six years later.
Explaining the purpose of the six-month pilot schemes being held across the UK, the Home Office's Peter Wilson said: "This isn't a test of the technology - that's likely to change in the future as things move on - it's the process.
"We're looking for customer reactions and perceptions, and any particular difficulties."
I was greeted in a reception area for enrolment, which consisted of filling out a form with basic information about myself such as gender, age, postcode and ethnic background.
Then I gave the form and my name to operator Rachel Davies, who fed the information into a computer.
I was ushered into a room and directed to sit in a sophisticated-looking booth, facing a hi-tech camera. No going back now.
The first test is the facial recognition, which is like a prolonged photograph without the flash.
Big Brother
No cheesy grins will be allowed, because the machine is scanning the measurements of your face and "doesn't like teeth".
BIOMETRIC PILOT SCHEMES
Target of 10,000 volunteers
No figures yet, but more than 16,000 have shown an interest
All details are destroyed and feedback anonymous
Set in London, Glasgow and Leicester, plus a mobile facility travelling the UK
Aims to identify any practical difficulties and give a cost projection of full scheme
Current cost predicted £1.3bn to £3.1bn
The iris scan required more concentration because I had to stare hypnotically at two ellipses in the camera, while the machine verbally directed me.
"Come closer," says a Big Brother-like voice, instructing me to shuffle my seat forward while keeping my eyes fixed on the shapes.
After about 60 seconds, the machine indicated the scanning was complete.
No messy carbon required for the fingerprints. Instead I had to put each hand's four fingers, then the thumb, on a glass scanner.
My prints appeared on a computer screen and within minutes were compared against one million others which, for the sake of the pilot scheme, had been imported from the US.
ID CARDS TIMETABLE
Nov 2003: Draft Bill published
Apr 2004: Pilot schemes begin
Autumn 2004: White Paper in Parliament
2005: Facial biometrics used on passports (scanned from passport photograph)
2007: New passports and driving licences to require biometrics, separate ID cards optional
2013: Parliament to vote on making it compulsory for all to have some form of biometric ID
With all three tests completed, I had to give a copy of my signature which they stored electronically.
I filled out a feedback form about my experience and then the card was ready and in my hands.
It's strange to think that the identity card's small microchip contains some personal information and my biometrics.
Although I don't feel psychologically invaded or like an android - as I feared I might - I can understand why others might.
Another simple fingerprint test verifies that I match the card and that's it, over.
If the government gets its way, the information on the chip would also be stored on a national identity register, accessible to the police, government departments, the Inland Revenue, immigration and intelligence services.
No wonder as I leave, a member of staff jokes: "We'll be tracking you."
Time to take a stand or we will have no liberty left !!!!!!!!