Norway’s new passport – already a design classic?
theguardian.com
Norway’s new passport – already a design classic?
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Re: Norway’s new passport – already a design classic?
#2The new passports will not be issued until April 2018.
I just realised I'll end up with one of the first ones - my current spare passport expires on March 31st, 2018.
Re: Norway’s new passport – already a design classic?
#3(2014)
Re: Norway’s new passport – already a design classic?
#4It's a distinctive, minimalist design, for sure. Hopefully it's still as usable as before. Though ICAO passport specifications mean designers probably aren't given enough rope to hang themselves.
Re: Norway’s new passport – already a design classic?
#5I've been thinking that the security function served by a passport is very rapidly becoming obsolete (or at least redundant) for travel to most countries in the world. It could be replaced by a plastic photo ID card -- which you could then call a "passport" I suppose. And with strong biometrics, it could be replaced by nothing.
Let me explain this with typical cases where a passport is used:
(1) You're entering your home country with your passport. Pretty much at every secure border crossing, they're going to use your passport number to pull up absolutely every bit of info that appears in your passport, including your photo, plus a lot more info from the home country's computers. The passport serves at most as a "something you have" security token. They already have your photo, so the only case where the physical passport helps is avoiding impersonation by someone closely resembling you.
(2) You're traveling to a foreign country that needs a visa. In that case, you will have submitted a ton of information, including your photo, to the foreign country in advance to get the visa. When you arrive at the foreign country, it's just like case (1) above.
(3) You're traveling to a foreign country that doesn't need a visa from citizens of your home country. In this case, the proof you need is that you are a citizen of that country. It is likely that the two countries have exchanged a mass of information to make the visa-free travel possible, or they can share the info about visitors in real time as they arrive.
It's really the edge cases that the physical passport helps. Like obscure border crossings where they don't have an electronic feed, or very third-world countries, or as a recognizable document to show to hotels/banks/airlines within a foreign country.
By the way, I'm not saying that this is a good development. In fact, it's a terrible loss of privacy and furthering of worldwide surveillance. But it seems to be the trend, like the elimination of cash.
Re: Norway’s new passport – already a design classic?
#6I've been thinking that the security function served by a passport is very rapidly becoming obsolete (or at least redundant) for travel to most countries in the world. It could be replaced by a plastic photo ID card -- which you could then call a "passport" I suppose. And with strong biometrics, it could be replaced by nothing. Let me explain this with typical cases where a passport is used: (1) You're entering your…
Your from a country in which privacy isn't particularly valued I take it? I think you're heavily overestimating how much data is available to governments.
Re: Norway’s new passport – already a design classic?
#7I've been thinking that the security function served by a passport is very rapidly becoming obsolete (or at least redundant) for travel to most countries in the world. It could be replaced by a plastic photo ID card -- which you could then call a "passport" I suppose. And with strong biometrics, it could be replaced by nothing. Let me explain this with typical cases where a passport is used: (1) You're entering your…
The EU countries have something very similar to that:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_identity_cards_in_the...
Re: Norway’s new passport – already a design classic?
#8I've been thinking that the security function served by a passport is very rapidly becoming obsolete (or at least redundant) for travel to most countries in the world. It could be replaced by a plastic photo ID card -- which you could then call a "passport" I suppose. And with strong biometrics, it could be replaced by nothing. Let me explain this with typical cases where a passport is used: (1) You're entering your…
You're totally right, the paper passport could be considered a strange object in a very electronic world.
However, in my experience, truly electronically equipped borders are the edge case. The countries that take e-passports without any agent interaction are fee and far between, and typically only service citizens of that country.
Perhaps you're fortunate enough to travel in a selection of bleeding edge countries, via plane. Many, many people use land borders, and most land borders don't have electronic systems.
For an electronic system to work, you'd need 100% coverage of every border, or the system breaks - and that's hard to pull off.
The flip side is that there are security flaws with partial electronic systems. My country passed a law against travel to Iraq / Afghanistan for citizens, and yet, because they have 100% electronic border control for citizens, (and Iraq / Afghanistan don't..) - my passport has never been checked, despite having 'illegal' visas plain to see.
Re: Norway’s new passport – already a design classic?
#9The new passports will not be issued until April 2018. I just realised I'll end up with one of the first ones - my current spare passport expires on March 31st, 2018.
You could wait one day to renew it, no?
Re: Norway’s new passport – already a design classic?
#10I've been thinking that the security function served by a passport is very rapidly becoming obsolete (or at least redundant) for travel to most countries in the world. It could be replaced by a plastic photo ID card -- which you could then call a "passport" I suppose. And with strong biometrics, it could be replaced by nothing. Let me explain this with typical cases where a passport is used: (1) You're entering your…
The point of the passport is that information in there is readable easily. I can easily check my visa state as can the cop checking me somewhere. Also the passport can be checked by a porential employer to verify my integration state which might include a working permission. Also mind that in many countries of the world (i.e. in many African countries) technology is of limited availability. Any digital form would require data exchange formats and protocols. Printing/stamping/sticking can be done everywhere easily and the protocol "paper pages of size 125 mm × 88 mm" is trivial.
The thing you describe essentially also exists in many countries as a ID already, which I.e. can be enough for EU citizens to travel within the EU.