Some of the USA's biggest businesses — Unisys, Lockheed Martin, EDS and Microsoft, for example — have shown interest in Registered Traveler, which could be a gateway to greatly expanded use of biometric identification. Big business envisions spinning off a massive new industry that uses biometric cards to verify the identity of people in all kinds of other contexts — making credit card purchases or doing anything else in which establishing identity is important.
The federal government sees the technology and procedures adopted for Registered Traveler as a way to move people more quickly across borders and into federal buildings, airport tarmacs, pipeline facilities and other secure sites.
"I would hope that eventually a large number of people find their way into a trusted or vetted traveler program," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says.
But a two-tiered security system raises the specter of long lines, heightened official skepticism and more intense scrutiny for people who don't have the biometric IDs.
"It's a way of fundamentally changing our culture by making people suspect if they don't willingly give up their privacy" and apply for a card, says American Civil Liberties Union legislative counsel Tim Sparapani. "Regular people will become suspect."(USA Today)
Registered Traveller Garnering Interest
Civil liberties organizations can't stop the tidal wave of interest in integrated biometric ID systems such as those now being implemented by the US government's Registered Traveller program:
