Scanner issues mainly due to unclear thumbprints

16 July 2008

MyPaper

WE THANK Ms Anna Khoo Eng Neo for her letter “Remove thumbprint scanners at checkpoints” (my paper, July 2).

Ms Khoo could have been referring to the enhanced Immigration Automated Clearance System (eIACS). The system allows Singapore citizens to make use of their machine-readable and biometric passports for automated clearance through the use of biometric technology.

With the rise in and sheer volume of travellers passing through our checkpoints, immigration clearance through manned counters would have been a challenge if not for the introduction of the automated clearance lanes.

Out of more than three million Singaporeans who are now eligible to use the eIACS, about 1.7 million have made use of this facility since its introduction in 2006.

The eIACS leverages on the unique features of a person’s biometrics for immigration clearance. After scanning the traveller’s passport at the self-service kiosk, the system retrieves the person’s fingerprint record from the National Registration Office’s database for verification.

The automated gate would open for the traveller to pass through once the system has verified that the passport holder’s fingerprint matches the one stored in the database.

There are possible reasons why a person’s fingerprint cannot be verified against the database records. A common reason is that the user’s thumb is not placed properly on the scanner, resulting in a poor thumbprint image being captured for the match against biometric records in the database.

Travellers with excessively wet or dry fingerprints might also experience difficulties when using eIACS. Where possible, officers performing secondary checks would be deployed to guide these non-frequent users.

Our records show that Ms Khoo had used the automated clearance system on three occasions and had difficulties with it only on the last occasion. Her husband may have had a similar experience.

We welcome Ms Khoo and her husband to contact our senior customer relations executive, Mr Wee Yew Boon, on 6391-6340 to provide us with more details so that we can look into their experiences with the eIACS. Their feedback will help us improve our services.

Ms Eunice Chu
Deputy director, corporate communications division
Immigration & Checkpoints Authority


Remove thumbprint scanners at checkpoints

2 July 2008

I WOULD like to suggest that the thumbprint scanner at the airport and ferry terminals be removed.

Once, the scanner failed to detect my thumbprint, although I was allowed to pass through the first barrier after my passport was scanned.

As a result, I held up other travellers behind me. After getting the attention of an immigration officer, I was allowed to walk through with no further verification.

This, in my opinion, is one flaw of the thumbprint-scanning system. A person could use someone else’s passport and even if he could not pass the thumbprint scanner, he could still clear immigration.

My husband also had problems while using the scanner and he has now stopped using it.

For security purposes, the immigration department should make sure that passports are checked again when the scanner fails to read the thumbprints.

Ms Anna Khoo Eng Neo