Airports are set to enhance passenger comfort through biometric recognition but it has an ugly side too

In a bid to revolutionise air travel and cut down on travails and queues of transiting travellers, the Bangalore International Airport Ltd has decided to use biometric face scans as part of its entry protocol, the first-of-its-kind for any Indian airport. Each passenger can now pass the modalities of the airport faster and more seamlessly — there will be no need to pass through the tedious process of shuffling with paper travel documents at various points, like check-in, security at immigration or while boarding your aircraft. Once your facial characteristics match the one on your linked database, one can zoom through all checkpoints. The idea though is not new. Already, the Government, under its DigiYatra programme is toying with the idea to make airports digital using Aadhaar and mobile phones as verification tools. Nevertheless, the use of facial biometrics, though new at our airports, is already a part of our lives — we use it to unlock our cellphones and laptops. Even the Unique Identification Authority of India, which already uses iris and finger print scans for Aadhaar validation, recently harped on the need for facial recognition. The prospect seems more adaptable given the rapid progress of science and technology as also Artificial Intelligence that has forced countries all over the world to transition.

But the question is whether biometrics are safe enough and tamper-proof. While they guarantee operational integration, we have to be particular about data privacy. As is the case with sharing of other biometric details, the data  collected may be prone to be shared between airports, authorities as also the airlines. Some experts fear that if biometrics become too commonplace, users and executors might not use the kind of common-sense security measures that they use today and a glitch or two might even cost a physical breach of security. The data stored in a biometric network is more personal than any other kind of detail. While one can change one’s passwords repeatedly to hoodwink hackers, one can’t change one’s fingerprint or iris scan. This means that once your biometric data has been compromised, there might be no going back. However, with the hyper-sensitive US introducing this technology at its many airports and systems putting in rearguard correctives, this is the way forward for ease of travel. It is vital that the Government puts in place the correct privacy and regulatory procedures to prevent the misuse and theft of biometric data. It is not enough to have a privacy law, the loss or manipulation of such data has major national security issues. We must wait for the government’s proposed pilot drills till we spread it out across our entire airport infrastructure network.