#biometric-data

#biometric-data

On 10 December, 2025, the United States government announced that visitors wishing to enter America from any of the 42 visa waiver programme countries would have to undergo social media vetting. Visitors would also be required to disclose personal information about close family members. The notice was created by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

One of the most common refrains we hear from age verification proponents is that online ID checks are nothing new. After all, you show your ID at bars and liquor stores all the time, right? And it's true that many places age-restrict access in-person to various goods and services, such as tobacco, alcohol, firearms, lottery tickets, and even tattoos and body piercings.

As businesses continue to integrate sophisticated identity verification systems, the temptation to collect as much user data as possible grows. Unfortunately, this approach backfires. Storing excessive amounts of personal data, particularly in onboarding and KYC (Know Your Customer) flows, does not automatically lead to enhanced security. Instead, it expands the surface area for vulnerabilities and increases the potential scale of impact of security incidents.

Actors are, by and large, people pleasers. To have a standoff about scanning when you are in the midst of a scene annihilates your creativity, engenders fear that you will never work again, that your agent will drop you. So you comply. Lead and supporting actors, stunt performers and dancers have all told the Guardian of similar experiences on set, of being ushered into scanners despite being unclear on their rights relating to the biometric data produced.

The EU has announced it will launch the rollout of its new entry system involving fingerprinting and facial recognition instead of passport wet stamping on 12 October.

"The Kenyan High Court ordered the project to delete biometric data collected from over 300,000 citizens, ruling that it violated the country's Data Protection Act."

Transparencia Electoral has developed an interactive index detailing data protection laws during elections across 16 Latin American countries, highlighting crucial privacy concerns.