Brown drums up support for biometrics

Brown drums up support for biometrics
by Antony Savvas
Wednesday 15 February 2006
Chancellor Gordon Brown has been praising the use of biometric technology for cross-border control, anti-terrorist activity and to combat identity theft.
Brown said that if biometrics could be used by US supermarkets and Japanese banks, the technology could be put to government use too. “With passports now requiring biometrics
Article Continues Below
80% of the adult population will have to register their biometrics to ensure our borders are secure and so they can travel freely across the world.”
Brown added, “Already one million people have bought and used an IBM laptop which uses fingerprint recognition to control access.”
He said manufacturers were now looking at the same fingerprint recognition technology to make mobile phones and MP3 players worthless if stolen.
Brown said that 40 other countries plan to introduce biometric passports by the end of the year.