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, 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.
