US-VISIT

The Homeland Security Department is trying to quash criticism of its slow development of an exit piece to the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology program. Robert Mocny, US-VISIT director, said this week the agency has decided a piece of the exit program will require airlines to collect biometric data of visitors leaving the country when they check in at the airport. Mocny said DHS will issue a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register by January 2008 detailing the program.

Foreign travelers will be required in the future to provide biometrics at airports when departing from the United States. Recently DHS officials testified before Congress that the department was moving forward with implementing US-VISIT biometric exit procedures at U.S. airports to improve national security. DHS plans to publish a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking before the end of calendar year 2007 outlining its plans to incorporate US-VISIT biometric exit procedures into travelers' airline check-in process. These security measures will accompany the biometrics already nescesary--fingerprints and a digital photograph--upon entering the United States.

OTTAWA -- The 2002 film Minority Report depicts a society that keeps tabs on its citizens by swiftly scanning their irises when they exit subway cars or enter buildings. The same technology verifies the identity of those authorized to enter restricted areas.

At the time the Stephen Spielberg film was released, the biometric world it depicted still seemed far off. But in the five years since, systems that rely on biometric samples of fingerprints or iris and facial scans to establish identity have become so ubiquitous some suggest we're witnessing the birth of the biometric state.