IRIS - Iris Recognition Immigration System – what is it, how does it work and what are the issues?

16 August 2007

IRIS (Iris Recognition Immigration System) is being promoted as 'a fast and secure way to clear immigration when returning to the UK'. Pilot projects are currently running at Heathrow, Manchester, Gatwick and Birmingham.

The Border & Immigration Agency (BIA) advise that "Iris recognition offers a method of securely recognising someone by the pattern of his or her iris. The iris is the most personally distinct external physical characteristic. The IRIS takes a photograph of the iris pattern and converts it to a digital code which is then compared against iris codes stored in a secure database."

Successfully enrolled passengers can enter the United Kingdom through automated immigration control barriers after looking into an iris recognition camera. These barriers are located in immigration arrival halls (currently at the pilot locations detailed above) and form part of Immigration and Passport Control. Crossing the IRIS barrier to enter the UK takes approximately 20 seconds.

The enrolment process is free and painless and takes approximately five to ten minutes. Enrolment facilities are currently available to departing passengers airside in all terminals of the four airports involved in the pilot.

After a short interview with an immigration officer, those that qualify will have their travel document details entered onto a secure database and have a full-face photograph and photographs of their iris patterns taken. The iris pattern photographs are taken using standard video camera technology - there are no bright lights or lasers involved. These photographs will then be stored on the database along with their personal data.

An immigration official will then explain the arrival procedure and the opportunity to practise using the iris recognition camera will be available.

Having enrolled with IRIS at any of the enrolment centres, passengers can use the IRIS barriers at any of the participating airport terminals. IRIS is currently in operation at Heathrow terminals 1, 2, 3, and 4, Gatwick North and South, Manchester terminals 1 and 2 and at Birmingham.

This all seems very encouraging for the frequent flyer as it should remove the need to queue at immigration. Assuming there are enough automated barriers to cope with traffic levels and they are all working, passing though immigration should be a breeze. To date, only around 110,000 have enrolled in the pilot, which represents a tiny fraction of the total 133 million that pass annually through the four airports currently operating the system. So for the time being at least, those enrolled to use IRIS should have no queues to contend with at all.

Assuming the pilot is a success, it follows that IRIS barriers will be installed at all points of entry into the UK and ultimately reciprocal agreements with other countries might exist to speed immigration transit at foreign destinations too.

But what of the wider privacy issues? Is this the first step toward a world like the one portrayed in Spielberg’s Minority Report where intelligent billboards immediately identify passers-by, address them by name and target them with personalised ads? It is highly unlikely that any sane government would ever share such information with the commercial sector without the owner’s permission, but as the technology matures and becomes more widespread, businesses such as banks may require their customers to provide an iris scan as a further form of ID and as the technology becomes commonplace, scope-creep is inevitable.

But how much information that personally identifies us should the government be allowed to hold? Anyone with a passport or new-style driving licence will already have their photos on file with various government agencies. Practical facial recognition technology is just around the corner.

Understandably, people are wary of voluntarily providing their fingerprints as a means of ID for immigration purposes; clearly the close association with crime detection renders fingerprint recognition an unattractive proposition for the law abiding traveller. Iris recognition has no similar stigma and unlike a fingerprint, the iris leaves no unintentional evidence of a person’s presence once they have left a particular location. And for the time being at least, it will be obvious when our irises are being scanned.

Civil liberties advocates warn of the erosion of privacy. The counter argument is that unless you are up to no good, what have you got to worry about? The UK already enjoys the highest level of video surveillance in the world with one video surveillance camera for every 14 members of the population. We shouldn’t blame the technology, but it evolves at an ever increasing rate, society is unable to keep up and few of the lawmakers seem to have a real understanding of the ramifications of their actions.

It will be technically possible in the not too distant future for a system with very high resolution cameras (though presumably not those currently installed on our streets), coupled to a powerful computer and database, to use iris recognition routinely to identify every person walking down a busy street, assuming of course those people are in the database. And this is the concern that the libertarians rightly raise; will this lead to a huge increase in the number of people being arrested just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time? With proper use this shouldn’t happen, but the worry is not the technology, but whether we can trust the politicians to put balanced legislation in place and not to abuse the power that such technology provides.

So, back to the use of IRIS at our airports. Is it a good thing? Broadly speaking, yes; anything that allows the unfettered passage of the vast majority while helping those with the unenviable task of identifying and apprehending those with malicious intent is a benefit to all of us. However, we must look to our elected representatives to ensure that this is not the first step on the slippery slope to a somewhat belated Orwellian existence.

If it is, I guess we can always break out the mirrored Ray-Bans when we walk down the street, unless they make those illegal too.

If any of you have enrolled in the IRIS pilot, we would be delighted to hear about your experiences. Please e-mail us at: website@currencyuk.com

For more information on IRIS, visit www.iris.gov.uk