D3.10: Biometrics in identity management

Title: STANDARDS AND REGULATIONS

The work on standardisation of biometric technology is ongoing. The efforts are made in national bodies, such as the ‘Deutches Institut für Normung’ (DIN) in Germany, the Biometric Working Group (BWG) in the United Kingdom, in the United States, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the InterNational Committee for Information Technology (INCITS). Efforts are also made in international organisations, such as the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) in collaboration with the Information Society Standardisation System (ISSS) and ICAO, ILO (two UN related organisations) and ISO. The work of ISO in cooperation with the International Electro-technical Commission (IEC) in the field of biometrics is important. Subcommittee 37 of the Joint Technical committee 1 of ISO/IEC focuses on the standardisation of biometrics. The group was set up in December 2002 and consists of 6 Working groups. Working Group 1 works on a Harmonized Biometric Vocabulary. Group 2 works on Biometric Technical Interfaces. The BioAPI is one of the standards on which that group has worked. Group 3 standardises the Biometric Data Interchange Formats. This group has also been very active. It aims at standardising the content, meaning, and representation of biometric data formats which are specific for a particular biometric technology. The standards issued in 2005 for the biometric data interchange formats for fingerprint image (ISO/IEC IS 19794-4) and face image (ISO/IEC IS 19794-5) are best known. Group 4 works on a Biometric Functional Architecture and Related Profiles. Group 5 concentrates on Biometric Testing and Reporting and Group 6 on the Cross-Jurisdictional and Societal Aspects. Some time ago, Group 6 started its work on the cross-jurisdictional and societal aspects of the implementation of biometric technologies. In a first part, a guide is drafted to the ‘accessibility, privacy, and health and safety issues in the deployment of biometric systems for commercial application’. In a second part, there is a technical report relating to the practical application to specific contexts being prepared. A working draft study has been initiated. The work of Subcommittee 37 is also relevant for other standardization work within ISO, such as the work of the Subcommittees 17 (Personal Identification Cards) and 27 (Security) of the Joint Technical committee 1 of ISO/IEC. This group 27 is also engaged to some extent in standardisation related to biometrics. Parties which have an interest in the field of biometrics should take a closer look to the (draft)documents issued by these organisations and follow closely the standardization work which is presently going on in all of these groups.