UK Borders Bill
1:30 pm
Professor Ross Anderson: I do not have deep expertise in this specific field, but I understand from colleagues that iris codes are stable throughout life, as they are formed in the womb in the second to third month of pregnancy. Fingerprints are more difficult, because children may not have as prominent fingerprints as adults. Even though they may not change, they may have a higher error rate in measurement. Fingerprint error rates also increase where people are manual workers, where they are elderly and their fingerprints have been worn down, or where fingers have been injured. I have a cut on one of my fingers with which I managed to crash the fingerprint sensors initially put in at the FBI in Washington. They have fixed that bug, but it is still the case with most biometrics that some people are not measured as well as the general population. That can affect children.