The system for storing and verifying biometric information being created in Russia must be coordinated with similar foreign systems, since the main point of the new technology is the computerization of border control. The first to introduce biometric identity documents were the countries of Southeast Asia (and this is just one example of how they are noticeably ahead in information technology terms of the rest of the world, including countries that we usually call developed). In Singapore and Malaysia, biometric passports are already in use. The United States, the European Union, and Japan, like Russia, are in the stage of introducing such systems - their introduction is planned to begin next year and be completed within no more than five years. The European leader is Germany, where biometric passports will begin to be issued as early as November 1, 2005.
The introduction of biometric control systems is advisable not only from the point of view of states that currently do not have effective means of protection against, for example, illegal migration. Citizens also benefit from the introduction of biometric passports. According to Norbert Kouwenhoven from the European branch of IBM Business Consulting Services, thanks to biopassports, the traditional "interface" of border control will become much friendlier to the traveler. Biometric identification will make it possible to replace today's "Stop, who goes there? Present your documents!" with "Hello, we know who you are, welcome" - information about a person will reach border guards directly from, for example, an airline, and at the checkpoint it will need only a simple check using, as an option, a fingerprint scanner. Biometric identification can also save an air traveler hours of waiting in lines for tickets and check-in. Machines for selling tickets for international flights and check-in at the airport is one of the technologically possible solutions.
All the necessary information infrastructure for this, with the exception of the actual biometric control means, already exists. For example, in Europe, instead of buying plane tickets at a ticket office, it is much more convenient to select a flight on the Internet on the airline's website and pay for the flight with a credit card, then print out the so-called "electronic ticket" (e-ticket). There is, however, nothing electronic about an e-ticket. It is simply a sheet of paper that shows your name, flight number, cabin class, and purchase confirmation code. At the check-in counter, upon presenting the e-ticket and passport, you are issued a boarding pass. This procedure obviously reduces the airline's costs, simultaneously creating competitive advantages for it, and saves the passenger time.
The Russian project will cost, according to estimates by the Voskhod Research Institute, approximately half a billion dollars. This is comparable to the cost of similar projects abroad. Germany, for example, intends to spend €670 million on biometric passports. The costs for the new-style passports themselves are not that great and will amount to approximately $35 per document. Significantly more expensive will be the scanning equipment at biometric border control points and the data transmission system connecting the control points to the central biometric data storage.