Royal Philips Electronics has announced that France is the latest country to select contactless, smart-card chip technology from the company for integration into its new electronic passports. The e-passports are initially being issued in Hauts-de-Seine, west of Paris, and throughout France by the end of this month. The French government is producing 20,000 e-passports a day to meet the June deadline. The new passports have been issued to comply with U.S. border regulations--or Visa Waiver Program--which means that some countries' passports have to store biometric data and a digital image for visitors wishing to enjoy visa-free travel to the country.

The Philips 36 KB EEPROM memory, high-security chip is specifically designed to fulfill the needs of eGovernment projects with its high memory capacity able to hold biometric information such as fingerprints and facial images. The IC is highly reliable with a data retention time of 20 years--twice that of the industry standard. The Common Criteria EAL5+ security embedded in the French passports is secured by highly advanced encryption hardware and physical hacking countermeasures to meet the demands of security-sensitive markets such as eGovernment and banking. It will protect and store unique passport holder information, reducing fraud and forgery of travel documents and enhancing security for travellers. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced that as of Oct. 26, 2006 all persons traveling under the auspices of the Visa Waiver Program must present a machine-readable passport to travel to the United States without a visa.

Electronic passports enable greater levels of security than those provided by current passports, boost traveler safety, and shorten the amount of time spent in passport control queues while also enabling governments to better protect their borders.

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