Ridge Calls for Digital Fingerprints on Passports
"The call by outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge for U.S. passports to bear digital scans of all of the holder's fingerprints highlights one of his successor's looming challenges: applying order to the threatening proliferation of biometric identity verification systems across the world," says UPI in a news analysis piece. "Ridge's call, on the eve of a trip to Europe, was couched in the form of an appeal for the United States to show leadership as the international community wrestles with the question of what biometric information to include on passports and visas and how to store the data."