3 November 2005

Electronic chip not just about passport security

Internal Affairs Minister Rick Barker's claim that the new 'e-passport' is mainly being introduced to enhance the security of the document is being disputed by Green Party Human Rights Spokesperson Keith Locke.

The new e-passport will contain an electronic chip that will carry information about its holder, in a move designed to enhance the security and protect the integrity of the travel paper.

"The chip will make the passport more tamper proof, but the driving force for the change was the Bush Administration's desire to have an electronic facial recognition system for overseas visitors," Mr Locke says.

"Each chip will contain the digitally mapped contours of the Kiwi passport holder's face, which are then checked against an American database of facial images and a photo of each visitor to the US, taken as they pass through Immigration.

"It is part of a global move for greater biometric identification of citizens, driven out of America and Britain.

"The electronic facial maps could be the thin end of the wedge. What is to stop a future government adding biometric markers such as fingerprints and iris patterns, as is being projected in Britain, or other information?

"The Blair government has said the new biometric passports are the first step towards a universal British ID card. Most New Zealanders don't want an ID card here, so we should be concerned about what is happening to our passports," Mr Locke says.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On The Skewed Media Coverage Of Gaza

Now that he’s back as Foreign Minister, maybe Winston Peters should start reading the MFAT website which is currently celebrating the 25th anniversary of how Kiwis alerted the rest of the world to the genocide in Rwanda. How times have changed ...

In 2023, the government is clutching its pearls because senior Labour MP Damien O’Connor has dared suggest that Gaza’s civilian population - already living under apartheid and subjected to sixteen years of an illegal embargo, and now being herded together and slaughtered indiscriminately amid the destruction of their homes, schools, mosques, and hospitals - are also victims of what amounts to genocide. More