As a law enforcement tool it will be a choice prize not just for police, but also for security services such as MI5. The Home Office would not comment on the potential use of this technology, but it insisted that the new database was a necessary step to combat passport fraud. However, neither the Home Office nor the Passport Agency were able to provide any fraud estimates to justify the system. However, the Agency is not responsible for such investigations. The potential to automatically match digitised passport images with photos from existing police databases and CCTV cameras is at the head of a barrage of privacy concerns.
Several companies are well on the way to developing such technology.
Miros Inc. has developed a system that can compare, in under a second, an image from a standard security camera with stored images. The TrueFace system developed by Miros has been installed in 80 locations around the world. Adding or removing spectacles or facial hair makes only marginal difference to the system's accuracy. Already Manchester City use face recognition at their Maine Road football ground and if Heathrow airport gets the green light for Terminal 5, they will use automatic face recognition, technology which has been part-funded by Marks and Spencers, the Police Foundation and British Aerospace. The fraud argument is a confidence trick as the new passports will be just as easy to forge.