The passport's chip stores the traveler's name, date of birth, photographs of the traveler's face and fingerprints.
Biometric passports were introduced by the Biometrics Center in Graz, Austria. The purpose of the biometric passport is to compare the fingerprints stored on the chip with those read by a scanner at passport control. Also at passport control, digital photos are taken of the traveler, and those photos are compared with the photos on the chip. In particular, the placement of the traveler's eyes will be analyzed both on the chip and in person.
Digital passports are used in European passport control stations. Switzerland was the first country to adopt biometric passport screening in September 2006. Countries belonging to the EU pledged to provide digital passports by 2009. Morocco also declared its citizens eligible in December 2010.
