VOA常速英语2008年-Britain to Introduce Face Scans at Airports

By Tendai Maphosa
London
25 April 2008

British border officials are to introduce new facial recognition technology at airports this summer in a bid to boost security and ease overcrowding. They plan to set up unmanned gates where British and European Union passengers with biometric passports will have their faces scanned and matched with the image on the computer chip in their passports. Tendai Maphosa has more in this report from London.
 
The plan was revealed in the Guardian¹ daily newspaper Friday.  The paper says the trials were approved at a conference in London this week including international biometrics industry executives, top civil servants in border control, and police technology experts.  It quotes a British Border Agency saying a machine can do a better job of scanning passports and exposing identity fraud than humans.
 
An official at the Border Agency, speaking to VOA on condition of anonymity², confirmed the Guardian story.  A statement released to VOA quotes Immigration Minister Liam Byrne calling Britain's border security as among the toughest in the world.

He said that if the automatic gates work, they will be installed at all key airports.

But Phil Booth of No2ID, an organization campaigning against the introduction of ID cards in Britain, says the new technology is just another intrusion by the government.

"The technologies that the government introduces that they say are about security are nothing of the sort," he said.  "It's security theater.  It's trying to bamboozle³ people with some new bits of technology and say it's about security when in fact it's about just gathering⁴ and sharing more of your information without your knowledge and consent."

Booth says the technology, besides being more data gathering by the government on citizens, is not efficient.

"Our understanding from industry, speaking with people who supply this sort of recognition systems is that they simply don't perform well enough in real world situations for them to recognize people in a queue," he added.

He also criticized the introduction at a time when some high profile cases concerning the loss of personal data by the government have come to light. Last November two computer disks containing personal and financial data of some 25 million Britons disappeared after a junior employee of the British Revenue and Customs Office sent them to an audit⁵ office using an internal mail service.

At least eight million Britons hold biometric passports. The computer chips in them hold the carriers' facial details. 

Citizens of the European Economic Area - the European Union and Norway, Switzerland and Iceland - who have biometric passports would be able to use the automated⁶ gates.

1 guardian   

n.监护人；守卫者，保护者

参考例句：

• The form must be signed by the child's parents or guardian. 这张表格须由孩子的家长或监护人签字。
• The press is a guardian of the public weal. 报刊是公共福利的卫护者。

2 anonymity   

n.the condition of being anonymous

参考例句：

• Names of people in the book were changed to preserve anonymity. 为了姓名保密，书中的人用的都是化名。
• Our company promises to preserve the anonymity of all its clients. 我们公司承诺不公开客户的姓名。

3 bamboozle   

v.欺骗，隐瞒

参考例句：

• He was bamboozled by con men.他被骗子骗了。
• He bamboozled Mercer into defeat.他骗得默瑟认了输。

4 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

5 audit   

v.审计；查帐；核对；旁听

参考例句：

• Each year they audit our accounts and certify them as being true and fair.他们每年对我们进行账务审核，以确保其真实无误。
• As usual,the yearly audit will take place in December.跟往常一样，年度审计将在十二月份进行。

6 automated   

a.自动化的

参考例句：

• The entire manufacturing process has been automated. 整个生产过程已自动化。
• Automated Highway System (AHS) is recently regarded as one subsystem of Intelligent Transport System (ITS). 近年来自动公路系统(Automated Highway System,AHS)，作为智能运输系统的子系统之一越来越受到重视。