SmartGate facial recognition opens to eligible US travellers

AUSTRALIA'S customs authority will open its facial recognition border control system to eligible US travellers for the first time.

Smartgate

AUSTRALIA'S customs authority will open its facial recognition border control system to eligible US travellers for the first time.

From today, ePassort holders over the age of 16 eligible for the US Global Entry Program, which identifies low-risk travellers, will be able to use the SmartGate system at major international airports, as part of a four month trial.

If the trial is successful, SmartGate will be opened to all US ePassport holders. Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said the government would also "explore extending this facility to other nationalities in the future".

A spokesman for the minister said that US authorities were considering reciprocal arrangements to allow Australian electronic passport holders to enter the US using its fingerprint based biometric border control system.

The SmartGate system verifies a travellers' identity by matching information about their faces collected at border gates to algorithmic data stored in their passports.

Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare said that the trial was part of efforts to help border authorities manage growing numbers of passenger arrivals.

In June, the national auditor slammed Australian Customs and Border Protection for over reporting SmartGate's passport clearance performance.

The Australian National Audit Office found that in 2011, 1.8 million passengers successfully used the system which was less than half of Customs' forecasts of 4.16m.

The report also found that SmartGate falsely rejected up to eight per cent of travellers.