The idea to make identification biometric arose after the terrorist attack of 11 September 2001. The initiator of course, came from the United States, and then, 188 countries endorsed innovation, agreeing that biometrics is a technology, which should be related to the issuance of passports and visas of the next generation.

Biometric identifiers are essentially sensitive data. But there is a significant number of cases of forgery, falsification of these documents, which raises many concerns related to the fact, whether biometric technology is reliable enough and whether they are able to prevent fraud.

In Ukraine the law on biometric passports (so called this document for the sake of brevity) degree caused resonance and the scandal is that can be compared with the adoption of the language law. However, even he is not provoked such indignation among the population, in particular, Orthodox Christians, who are called individual number in the Registry ' digital name of the Antichrist"and lobbyists law - conscious or unconscious servants of evil".

And if jokes aside, the debate rages around document is quite serious. Moreover, many of the nuances associated with it, raise questions. It is unknown, however, is not "savetime" if the latest version of the law, the President of Ukraine, as he did before. Now Viktor Yanukovych allegedly there is no reason for the veto: its amendments (in particular, and the resolution of the believers to renounce "digital behalf of the Antichrist") were taken into account. It seems that the law on biometrics given a green light. Matter for the consequences of its adoption, and they can be different.

Now politicians have been saying that this law was adopted in view of the plan of action of the visa liberalization with the EU, namely about the change of the type of documents of the citizens of Ukraine. Director of the Institute for Euro-Atlantic cooperation Oleksandr Sushko generally believed that the Ukrainian government is using this law wants to save from the failure of the summit Ukraine-EU.

It is clear that after a while the General principle of identification will provide Ukrainians visa-free regime with EU countries. But, as regards the current situation in the country, one biometrics not do, because Europe is very unhappy with the many factors associated with Ukraine, including: selective justice, the elections of 2012, the level of corruption in the country.

Possible consequences

There are a considerable number of cases where the feasibility of using biometric passports were amenable to criticism and doubt. So, Dutch researchers concluded that these passports can pose a real threat to society. The thing is that used in them chips, the terrorists have the opportunity to make a passport-bomb which could explode during passport control.

Another case was the place to be in August 2006. Then the American hackers announced to the world that he created a device that reads data with biometric passports. The principle of operation of the mechanism is that it intercepts radio signals with chips, which, according to the developers of these passports can be done. Thus, documents with a very high degree of protection be transferred breaking, and information on how to copy and to block, or forged.

Another Dutch scientist made a fake for $ 120. During the experiment, he opened up two real chip on British passports, and then changed the data on them, which was later inserted in your passport photo of Osama bin Laden and the Palestinian suicide of Chibi Daragmeh. Thus the scientist managed to trick a program that checks the passport in international airports.
The majority of the EU countries and Russia for biometric passports use so-called RFID chips (radio frequency identification).

But in 2006, scientists said that such identification system vulnerable to different kinds of viruses that can get into the computer during the scan data.

Advantages and disadvantages

The advantage of biometric passports in that it facilitates the passage of border control, because the technical equipment that reads the data from the chip that greatly accelerates the process of identification. This is a plus for the person who goes abroad, as well as for the monitoring system, as it excludes the human factor and the possibility of subjective errors of the controller.

One of the drawbacks for the citizens is that the biometric passport will not enter the child, this should be made as a separate document at extra cost.

Another disadvantage of this system is that the Ukrainian legislators in the law a provision according to which for persons under 16 years of age, passport reissued every four years, which, of course, it hurts the pockets of the parents.

Also using biometrics is possible to exercise control over people, for example, where they are, which naturally reduces the chances of every citizen to have personal freedom, or simply their own space. Moreover, there are no guarantees of protection of biometric passports from fakes.

What will be the biometric passport in Ukraine?

The biometric passport is actually a plastic card with an embedded chip that stores as basic information about the person (name, fingerprints, citizenship, age, benefits)and additional (optional: marital status, blood group and so on).

On chips of the Ukrainian passports will only be saved fingerprint, as it scans the retina, according to Mr. Hrytsak, are not reliable protection (eyes can drip). According to preliminary data, internal biometric passport will cost the Ukrainians about 120 UAH, passport - from 350 to 700 UAH (depending on the urgency), and to issue them will be born with a period of 10 years.

Of course, sooner or later, Ukraine would need to introduce biometric passports. This requirement of time, but now the citizens are not sure that their data will be protected. There is yet another aspect. Why these transitions? Let's wait a few years, and will immediately be implanted with a chip under the skin...

Palamarchuk Irina