The paper passport is dying

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

For centuries, people have used some form of passport while moving from place to place. But the widespread standardization of passports as we know them today did not really begin until later First World Warwhen passports are commonly used as a security measure and to deter spies entering a country. Even then, some considered passports to be an “anachronism in the modern world”.

But the use of paper passports – which were before digitized as “e-Passports” with NFC chips in 2006– is slowly undergoing one of its biggest transformations to date. The travel industry, airports and governments are working to remove the need to show your passport when flying internationally. Eventually, you may not need to carry your passport at all.

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

The push to get rid of paper passports is happening all over the world. Until now, the airports in Finland, CanadaNetherlands, the United Arab Emiratesthe United Kingdom, Italythe united states, Indiaand elsewhere they have tried different levels of travel without a passport 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 documentation, and foreign visitors can “take advantage of the convenience of passport-free clearance when departing from Singapore”. More than 1.5 million people have used the systems, officials say.

“It will probably become the mainstream way to travel, as I understand it, in the near future,” says Athina Ioannou, a lecturer in business analytics at the University of Surrey in the UK, who has studied the implications of privacy that come with different types of travel. Ioannou says the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated contactless travel, and many efforts are being driven to try to get passengers moving quickly through airports.

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