Your Smartphone to be Your Passport Soon

UK Based Company – Technology to Store Paperless Passport in Smartphone

A British-based commercial banknote printer and passport company De La Rue has been working on a technology that could influence to store `paperless passports’ in smartphones by allowing travellers to use their smartphone at immigration control.De La Rue is the world’s biggest passport producer and prints British Banknotes.

 The technology could store passports within mobile phones permitting travellers to do away with the booklet which has been around for many years.It could turn to paperless passport which could act the same to mobile boarding cards enabling tourist to travel through the airport minus any documents, according to Telegraph. According to spokesman of the company who quoted that paperless passports is said to be one of the several enterprises which is presently being looked at, though at the moment it is a perception which is at the initial stage of development.

The report adds that the potential for forgery, global barriers together with distinct possibility of losing one’s smartphone could mean the security challenges present great hurdles. The Times had reported that Martin Sutherland, chief executive of the company had stated that they had begun work on the project in order to provide secure phone based information which could be operated at immigration control.

New Innovation/Technology Solutions

David Jevans from security company Proofpoint had quoted stating that the `digital passport on the phone would need new hardware on the device to securely store the electronic passport which cannot be copied from the phone. He further added that it would also have to be communicated wirelessly to passport reader since doing it onscreen similar to an airline ticket QR code could be copied or fooled.

De La rue chief executive Martin Sutherland had informed The Times that the paperless passport service is already in the testing mode. A spokesman has stated that technology is at the forefront of De La Rue’s business and is constantly looking at new innovations as well as technology solutions for customers around the globe. Modern passports tend to have chips already in them which compare the carrier’s face to the one that is stored in the passport. The one that is in the smartphone could embed this technology rather than merely representing the documents on a screen.

Passport Non Digital Document Given Technological Treatment

Passports are one of the last hold outs of non-digital documents. For instance, airline tickets are already being delivered directly to phones. Most important for De La Rue, would be to adjust its identity technology in a digital format and obtain the approval of its use by the government.

Airports in Miami as well as Atlanta have already tested mobile-based clearance system wherein travellers could use the phone to enter customs details. As mentioned by Sutherland, paperless passport being in the early stage of development, it was unlikely to arrive in the short term.

 Passport being one of the last hold-outs of non-digital documents in the travel industry, recently it has been given the technological treatment- cloud passport has been given a trial run and travellers could also take a self as their passport photo. Now it is left to be seen if passport books would go paperless and it is just a matter to time to see the outcome of this technology.