Centralized SystemsAt an early stage, planners must determine whether issuance will be centralized or distributed in multiple locations. Key factors to consider include: security of the process; overall control of program data; integration of databases; cost and security of issuing infrastructure, including printers, readers and staff; quality and consistency of finished credentials; and the convenience and service levels required for clients, Price-Francis said.
Major governments are increasingly shifting to centralized issuance systems for reasons of cost, control and security.
Privacy Protection
The largest barrier to adopting RFID and biometrics is privacy. Countries are concerned about information being used inappropriately or falling into the wrong hands. However, suppliers are confident that data protection through encryption methods, such as public key infrastructure (PKI), prevents tampering of communication between devices and locations, Kendall said.
Exchanging PKIs from country to country is an issue for customs and immigration procedures, if the country is not an ICAO member. "This is why one country cannot read passports from another," Lin said. "Countries that are ICAO members can share passport PKIs via ICAO's public key directory system."
New passports are protected by requiring the passport reader to authenticate itself as an authorized one, before the RFID chip releases its contents. "This ensures that the biometric data will not be read by an unauthorized terminal," said Eric Skinner, CTO at Entrust.
Governments can also minimize danger with administrative efforts. "This can be done by centralizing the system, and minimizing the amount of personal information maintained in the central identity register," Kendall said.
Way Forward
There are many issues to overcome before widespread adoption of digital national IDs. Several countries have launched e-passports in the Americas, Europe and Asia, but few countries have e-passport checking systems that can read the chip information from another country's passport during immigration. "You have no way of checking the electronic and digitized information on a passport if you cannot read it, causing inspectors to resort to traditional methods of manual face matching," Lin said.
More time and effort need to be spent on intercountry interoperability before national ID schemes can take off on a global scale. "Efforts can be seen in ICAO's work on the second generation e-passports, and as more countries adopt these passports, interoperability can be achieved," Skinner added.
Apart from technological challenges, past experience in conservative European countries suggests that without legal requirements to carry a national ID, the reception is usually lukewarm, if not downright hostile, Zhong said.
Cost is another issue that cannot be ignored. The expense difference between a paper-based ID card and a smart card is significant, making the latter less popular.
"Relying on a proven technology for identity documents is not only a question of practicality; it is also a question of efficiency and financial resources," Kuschewski said. "National ID projects are a long process, and complexities in infrastructure and technical interoperability must be addressed for successful deployment."