VisionLabs: Biometry may replace passports in Russia in 15–20 yrs

MOSCOW, Nov 23 (PRIME) -- Biometric data control may replace passports in Russia in 15–20 years, but no sooner because of the absence of laws or infrastructure, Alexander Khanin, founder and general director of VisionLabs, a developer of face recognition software, said on Thursday.

“From a technical point of view, replacing the passport and other documents that prove identity with biometric data is possible even now. For example, a combination of recognition of a face and iris ensures high completeness and accuracy of recognition of a person, which makes biometric identification possible without any paper documents for most routine events,” Khanin said.

“From a practical point of view, the replacement of passports with biometry will require corresponding federal laws, regulations, and infrastructure that will read biometric data in compliance with the government’s rules. The government will unlikely reject traditional documents soon since neither law nor the state is ready. Biometry will replace passports in Russia no sooner than in 15–20 years.”

The country’s biggest bank Sberbank, which earlier acquired a 25.07% stake in VisionLabs to create a platform of biometric identification, intends to become fully digital by 2020 and hopes to service clients without passports via biometry.

End