Re: TIDE, Railhead, and Oracle (waaaay ot)

  • From: Carel-Jan Engel <careljan@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: niall.litchfield@xxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 08 Sep 2008 21:17:49 +0200

we do that here in the netherlands for a couple of years already. 
my passport data is stored on a cc-format piece of plastic. so is the
data of the iris of both my eyes.
i got my card some 3-4 years ago.

now, when leaving or entering the country, i have the chip of the card
read at the first door of the special lane. it opens, allowing me access
to the iris-scan device, and closes behind me. if my eye matches the
card, the second swings open. at random, sometimes the other door swings
open, giving me priority access to the immigration officer (who can see
the whole process, the doors are only appr. 1m high). in that case:
1. i was randomly picked out for a check of my real passport;
2. my eye wasn't recognized (glasses dirty, i don't have to put them
off, having my eye outside of the pretty wide scan area, whatever)
3. some (traffic?) penalty wasn't payed in time.

1) has happened once so far, 2) has happened twice.

mind that no biometric data of me is stored anywhere in a database, just
on the card i'm carrying. maybe i'm naive, but i cannot see a potential
data leak there. well, i shouldn't lose the card. but then, who has the
software to read it? and what can they do with it? i can lose my
passport too. these are documents you treat very carefully.

data regarding 3) is matched, based on our equivalent of the us social
security number. that would be matched when they scan my passport too.

it costs me EUR119/year (appr. usd 238). i get closer parking spots,
business class check-in at many airlines, and so on, for that. when i
renew my passport, i get a new card. takes 30 minutes at the airport,
and i'm fine for again 5 years.
when returning from the us, or any other country that is not part of the
schengen-treaty, normally i'm in the car some 30-45 minutes after
docking at the gate. that is, when i have to pick up checked in luggage,
otherwise it's appr. 15-20 minutes. 

alas, available only at schiphol airport, although it seems we dutch
pot-smoking liberals are allowed through electronic immigration
procedures in washington dulles and jfk rsn (real soon now), based on
the very same card.

check http://www.schiphol.nl/web/show/id=67508/langid=42 for more info.

Best regards,

Carel-Jan Engel

===
If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. (Derek Bok)
===
On Mon, 2008-09-08 at 18:28 +0100, Niall Litchfield wrote:

> Interesting to me that you propose that. Here in the UK we have the
> same idea - government gets to store our biological identities in at
> least 2 databases - I'm pretty sure that's a bad idea. I certainly
> don't wish to trade it for faster check in. Especially as no-one wants
> to use the same tech for better health care. Still if you want every
> border guard and cop to have access to core identity data for legal
> citizens, I imagine that faster airports will be only one advantage.

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