Biometrics and E-identity (e-passport) in the European Union: Overcoming Poc-cultural Diversity for Common Cause?

This study deals with user acceptability of a proposed e-Passport in the European Union (EU). E-passport is an advanced version of a combined national identity card and travelling document which holds digitised biometric features of its associated individual for enhanced security of personal authentication. We attempt here to investigate the nature of the innovation and citizens’ attitudes to an e-Passport (or analogous innovation) in a range of socio-political-contexts within which the implementation occur. Our approach is to undertake media content analysis in two sets of nations – a set of European Union (EU) member states and a set of nations outside the EU where an initiative analogous to the e-passport has commenced. The data collected are interpreted under the guidance of the theoretic framework “Price of Convenience” briefly described and fully referenced herein and theories of national culture after (Hofstede, 1983, Hofstede, 1991).