Ridge Says U.S., EU Should Pioneer Biometrics [View All]

Ridge Says U.S., EU Should Pioneer Biometrics
Wed October 29, 2003 10:35 AM ET

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By Mark Trevelyan, Security Correspondent

BERLIN (Reuters) - The United States and the European Union should lead the world in setting international standards for biometrics such as facial recognition technology, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Wednesday.

Ridge said agreement between America and Europe on ways to combine fingerprints and facial recognition in travel documents could lead to a global standard. "First principle: trans-Atlantic agreement, U.S.-European Union agreement, leads the international discussion," Ridge told a news conference after meeting German Interior Minister Otto Schily in Berlin.

"I think the effort is to consolidate, harmonize the agreement between ourselves and then take it out to the rest of the world."

Schily told journalists: "We share the conviction that if different states work with varying standards, that will lead to confusion and make worldwide travel considerably harder."

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