The paper passport is dying

In a few years, no matter where you live or travel, your face will likely be your new passport.

For centuries people have used some form of passport as they moved from place to place. But the widespread standardization of passports as we know them today didn’t really begin until after that The First World Warwhen passports are generally used as a security measure and to deter spies from entering a country. even then some think passports to be “an anachronism in the modern world”.

But the use of paper passports – which were the first digitized as ‘e-passports’ with NFC chips in 2006— is slowly undergoing one of its biggest transformations yet. The travel industry, airports and governments are working to eliminate the need to show your passport on an international flight. After all, you may not need to carry your passport at all.

Instead, facial recognition technology and smartphones are increasingly being used to check and verify your identity against travel details before you can fly. These systems, advocates argue, can reduce the wait times and “friction” you experience at airports. But privacy experts warn that there is little transparency about the technologies used and their proliferation could lead to data breaches and higher levels of surveillance.

The push to eliminate paper passports is happening around the world. Until now, airports in Finland, CanadaNetherlands, United Arab EmiratesUnited Kingdom, ItalyUnited States, Indiaand elsewhere tried out different levels of passport-less travel or the technology needed to make it happen. In October, officials in Singapore announced that its residents can fly to and from the country without using their documents and foreign visitors can “enjoy the convenience of passport-free exemption when they leave Singapore”. More than 1.5 million people have used the systems, officials say.

“It will probably become a major mode of travel, as far as I can tell, in the near future,” says Athena Ioannou, a lecturer in business analytics at the University of Surrey in the UK, who has researched the privacy implications of different types of travel. Ioannou says the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated contactless travel and a lot of effort has gone into trying to move passengers through airports quickly.

While trials around the world are at different stages and use different technical infrastructure, they generally work in similar ways: Information previously stored in your passport’s NFC chip, including facial data, is instead stored digitally and linked to your phone . The EU plans to build official travel app for that. When you’re at an airport, the phone can be shown and a facial recognition camera will try to match you to your passport photo.