Airport fingerprinting - sensible security or thin end of the wedge?

[RedFox]

With the opening of Heathrow Terminal 5, all departing domestic passengers are to be fingerprinted at the check-in, and again at the boarding gate, to prevent them swapping boarding cards with international passengers. According the this report, industry insiders believe fingerprinting could become universal at all UK airports within a few years.

Although some overseas airports use fingerprinting as part of immigration checks, this will be a world first for departures. International passengers at Heathrow will not be fingerprinted - at least for now.

So - is this a sensible security measure, a welcome technological advance, an attempt to make fingerprinting seem normal in preparation for ID cards, or more hassle when the fingerprint scanner refuses to recognise you?

[Barry Shnikov]

With the opening of Heathrow Terminal 5, all departing domestic passengers are to be fingerprinted at the check-in, and again at the boarding gate, to prevent them swapping boarding cards with international passengers. According the this report, industry insiders believe fingerprinting could become universal at all UK airports within a few years.

Although some overseas airports use fingerprinting as part of immigration checks, this will be a world first for departures. International passengers at Heathrow will not be fingerprinted - at least for now.

So - is this a sensible security measure, a welcome technological advance, an attempt to make fingerprinting seem normal in preparation for ID cards, or more hassle when the fingerprint scanner refuses to recognise you?

It's another victory for terrorists. Every time the 'authorities' institute new rules that cause a nuisance, it makes us more aware of the what the terrorists do and what they want to achieve.

I'd be interested to know how many passenger-incidents the instigators of this scheme believe it will prevent. If it is, like, thousands, then fair enough. If it's a few dozen, should hundreds of thousands of people be inconvenienced in this way?

[Stuart M]

So - is this a sensible security measure, a welcome technological advance, an attempt to make fingerprinting seem normal in preparation for ID cards, or more hassle when the fingerprint scanner refuses to recognise you?

All part of the conditioning, my friend. After all, 1.5 million kids will probably be on the police DNA database by the end of this year, so why should someone even more obviously criminal than them, (i.e. you), worry about a mere fingerprint?

I mean, consider poor little me in 10 years time: I was in the Iraq War demos outside the Labour Party conference (Glasgow, 2003), live near an area with a high Muslim population,signed up to the No2ID campaign and moan about our surveillance society constantly on dance forums. I'll probably be greeted at the average airport by a tank and an armed response unit*.

If only I'd restricted my moaning to non-dance forums - they'd probably downgrade me then to low-risk, and it'd just be the one police officer.

[David Franklin]

It's another victory for terrorists. Every time the 'authorities' institute new rules that cause a nuisance, it makes us more aware of the what the terrorists do and what they want to achieve.

I'd be interested to know how many passenger-incidents the instigators of this scheme believe it will prevent. If it is, like, thousands, then fair enough. If it's a few dozen, should hundreds of thousands of people be inconvenienced in this way?

On your last point, I'd send you to the TSA Blog Site (Evolution of Security) if I wasn't afraid of being charged for manslaughter if you have an aneurism...

[John S]

I was saddened (but not surprised) by the idea of fingerprinting at T5, and my immediate reaction was that in future for any domestic travel I will do my best to let the train take the strain.

I guess eventually the surveillance goons will catch up with the trains as well, but hopefully by then my nursing home won't let me out.

[Stuart]

Looks like the plan is on hold for the time being:

Heathrow Fingerprint plan on hold