Cross-border sharing of biometric data could infringe human rights, warns an international coalition of civil liberties groups. . . .
Civil liberties groups from both sides of the Atlantic have joined forces to oppose the proposed introduction and cross-border sharing of biometrics and RFID in more than one billion passports worldwide.

Human rights organisations from Europe, North America, Australia and Asia have sent an open letter to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) railing against plans to create an international 'identity register' that would force the inclusion of biometrics and controversial RFID tracking tags in all passports by 2015.

Among the 39 groups who put pen to paper are: Privacy International, the Foundation for Information Policy Research, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union.

The ICAO will be meeting in Cairo next week and will be discussing the scheme. If the ICAO approves it, facial mapping and tracking tags would become mandatory, with fingerprinting also on the drawing board, depending on the preferences of individual governments.

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