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I'm slightly surprised that the passenger here (Josh Cahill) did not mention applying for a new passport. Although the stored biometric and encrypted informatio

I'm slightly surprised that the passenger here (Josh Cahill) did not mention applying for a new passport. Although the stored biometric and encrypted information is clearly not accessible with merely a photograph, the passport number itself is sufficiently private to cause severe headaches if published publically! With this in mind, it appears to me even more important to foster a norm of contactless identity verification at border controls. Ideally, you should never have to let your passport leave your person, and there would be international agreements to make custody of a non-citizen's passport illegal.

madsbuch 3y ago
can you explain what type of headaches your would expect? in Denmark we have had the issue that some companies issues loans solely based on social security numbers. however, the root issue is that lenders did not verify identity, and I am quite sure that companies malpracticing like this are liable themselves. mean while, AFAIK, in Sweden social security numbers are public info - that it probably what we should aim for.
- ranger_danger 3y ago
  > can you explain what type of headaches your would expect? identity theft
alwa 3y ago
At least in the US, isn’t the stored biometric data just a JPEG of the person’s face? In that sense, a photograph should suffice to reproduce it :) If the intention is in fact to communicate some fact about the passenger to other parties in the travel sector, it does seem like it might make sense to disambiguate the passenger you’re talking about by specifying their gender and date of birth, and for that matter a stable state-issued identifier. I am curious about what kind of headaches a passport document number could cause, though. I hear people worry about it a lot, but also I’m accustomed to places of public accommodation routinely scribbling the document number down at check-in, or photocopying the document themselves. Is the threat, like, a false visa application or something? Is it the birthday that people are worried about getting out there?

madsbuch 3y ago

can you explain what type of headaches your would expect? in Denmark we have had the issue that some companies issues loans solely based on social security numbers. however, the root issue is that lenders did not verify identity, and I am quite sure that companies malpracticing like this are liable themselves. mean while, AFAIK, in Sweden social security numbers are public info - that it probably what we should aim for.

ranger_danger 3y ago
> can you explain what type of headaches your would expect? identity theft

alwa 3y ago

At least in the US, isn’t the stored biometric data just a JPEG of the person’s face? In that sense, a photograph should suffice to reproduce it :) If the intention is in fact to communicate some fact about the passenger to other parties in the travel sector, it does seem like it might make sense to disambiguate the passenger you’re talking about by specifying their gender and date of birth, and for that matter a stable state-issued identifier. I am curious about what kind of headaches a passport document number could cause, though. I hear people worry about it a lot, but also I’m accustomed to places of public accommodation routinely scribbling the document number down at check-in, or photocopying the document themselves. Is the threat, like, a false visa application or something? Is it the birthday that people are worried about getting out there?