Country A captures a fingerprint. Country B can’t read it. The biometric border just became a wall.
- Apr 7
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 8
Governments are investing billions in biometric infrastructure — fingerprint scanners at borders, facial recognition at airports, iris capture in refugee registration centres. The promise: a person’s identity travels with them, verifiable anywhere.
The reality is more fragile than most decision-makers realise.
Biometric interoperability — the ability of one system to use biometric data captured by another — depends entirely on adherence to common data formats, quality thresholds, and exchange protocols. When these standards are not implemented consistently, the data exists but cannot be matched. The investment is made but the capability is not delivered.
This is not a future risk. It is a current one. Border systems that cannot verify biometric data from a neighbouring country’s travel document. Humanitarian registration systems that capture data in one format and transmit it in another. National ID programmes that procure biometric hardware without specifying the data standards it must produce.
CEN TC224 WG18 exists precisely to address this: developing the European standards for interoperability of biometric recorded data. The work is technical, painstaking, and largely invisible to the policymakers who depend on it.
SECOIA contributes to this work by donating time for an expert member — and translates it into procurement specifications, system requirements, and operational guidance for the governments we advise.
A biometric system that cannot interoperate is not a security system. It is an expensive database.
SECOIA Executive Consultants Ltd is a Swiss boutique consultancy specialising in identity management, border security, biometrics, secure documents, and ePassports. The firm holds active memberships in ICAO ICBWG, ISO/IEC, and CEN standardisation bodies.
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