This Technical Specification primarily focuses on biometric aspects of Automated Border Control (ABC) systems. Drawing on the first European and international ABC deployments, it aims to disseminate best practice experiences with a view to ensure consistent security levels in European ABC deployments. Furthermore, the best practice recommendations given here shall help make border control authorities' processes more efficient, speeding up border clearance, and delivering an improved experience to travellers.

ISO/IEC JTC1/SC 37 has published a series of standards dealing with biometric data coding, interfaces, performance tests as well as compliance tests. In order to promote global interoperability it is essential that all these standards are applied in European deployments. However, these standards do not consider national or regional characteristics; in particular, they do not consider European Union privacy and data protection regulation as well as European accessibility and usability requirements [22]. Thus, this Technical Specification amends the ISO standards with respect to special European conditions and constraints.

The Technical Specification systematically discusses issues to be considered when planning and deploying biometric systems for ABC and gives best practice recommendations for those types of systems that are or will be in use in Europe. The document deals with personal identification including ergonomic aspects that have an impact on the acquisition of biometric data.

Communication, infrastructure scalability and security aspects other than those related to biometrics are not considered. This document also does not consider hardware and security requirements of biometric equipment and does not recommend general border crossing procedures.

The enrolment process, e. g. for electronic passports, is out of scope of this document.