ISO/IEC DTS 29196
(Main)Information technology — Guidance for biometric enrolment
Information technology — Guidance for biometric enrolment
This document provides guidance to organizations relating to successful, secure and usable implementation of biometric enrolment processes. This document details risk factors, legal/privacy issues, and policy aspects that organisations can address during procurement, design, deployment and operation. This document is applicable to any organization, regardless of size, type and nature.
Technologies de l'information — Directives pour l'inscription biométrique
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FINAL DRAFT
Technical
Specification
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 37
Information technology — Guidance
Secretariat: ANSI
for biometric enrolment
Voting begins on:
Technologies de l'information — Directives pour l'inscription 2025-09-12
biométrique
Voting terminates on:
2025-11-07
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TO BE CONSIDERED IN THE LIGHT OF THEIR POTENTIAL
TO BECOME STAN DARDS TO WHICH REFERENCE MAY BE
MADE IN NATIONAL REGULATIONS.
Reference number
FINAL DRAFT
Technical
Specification
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 37
Information technology — Guidance
Secretariat: ANSI
for biometric enrolment
Voting begins on:
Technologies de l'information — Directives pour l'inscription
biométrique
Voting terminates on:
RECIPIENTS OF THIS DRAFT ARE INVITED TO SUBMIT,
WITH THEIR COMMENTS, NOTIFICATION OF ANY
RELEVANT PATENT RIGHTS OF WHICH THEY ARE AWARE
AND TO PROVIDE SUPPOR TING DOCUMENTATION.
© ISO/IEC 2025
IN ADDITION TO THEIR EVALUATION AS
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, or required in the context of its implementation, no part of this publication may
BEING ACCEPTABLE FOR INDUSTRIAL, TECHNO
LOGICAL, COMMERCIAL AND USER PURPOSES, DRAFT
be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or posting on
INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS MAY ON OCCASION HAVE
the internet or an intranet, without prior written permission. Permission can be requested from either ISO at the address below
TO BE CONSIDERED IN THE LIGHT OF THEIR POTENTIAL
or ISO’s member body in the country of the requester.
TO BECOME STAN DARDS TO WHICH REFERENCE MAY BE
MADE IN NATIONAL REGULATIONS.
ISO copyright office
CP 401 • Ch. de Blandonnet 8
CH-1214 Vernier, Geneva
Phone: +41 22 749 01 11
Email: copyright@iso.org
Website: www.iso.org
Published in Switzerland Reference number
© ISO/IEC 2025 – All rights reserved
ii
Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
4 Abbreviated terms . 3
5 Role of biometric capture processing in a biometric system . 3
6 Stakeholders and approaches for enrolment . 6
6.1 Enrolment stakeholders .6
6.2 Enrolment approaches .8
7 Stakeholder interests . 8
7.1 Key observations .8
7.2 Best practices and recommendations .10
7.2.1 General .10
7.2.2 Subject interests .10
7.2.3 Enrolment authority interests . 13
7.2.4 Operator interests .21
7.2.5 Relying party interests . 26
7.2.6 Designer and developer interests .27
7.2.7 Regulator interests. 33
7.2.8 Auditor interests . 34
8 Biometric enrolment capability development .34
8.1 General . 34
8.2 Enrolment station architecture and design . 34
8.3 System definition. 35
9 Modality specific guidance .35
9.1 General . 35
9.2 Facial biometric systems . 36
9.2.1 General . 36
9.2.2 Environment . 36
9.2.3 Pose and position . 36
9.2.4 Ethnicity .37
9.2.5 Improvements .37
9.2.6 Glasses . 38
9.3 Fingerprint biometric systems . 38
9.3.1 General . 38
9.3.2 Fingerprint capture considerations . 39
9.3.3 Single finger systems . 39
9.3.4 Tenprint systems . 40
9.4 Vascular (vein) authentication systems . 40
9.4.1 General . 40
9.4.2 Palm vein technology . 40
9.4.3 Finger vein technology .41
9.5 Iris biometric systems .41
10 Mobile applications .43
10.1 Best practice guidelines .43
10.2 Fingerprint systems .43
10.3 Facial image systems .45
10.4 Iris systems . 46
Bibliography . 47
© ISO/IEC 2025 – All rights reserved
iii
Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical
Commission) form the specialized system for worldwide standardization. National bodies that are
members of ISO or IEC participate in the development of International Standards through technical
committees established by the respective organization to deal with particular fields of technical activity.
ISO and IEC technical committees collaborate in fields of mutual interest. Other international organizations,
governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO and IEC, also take part in the work.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are described
in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the different types
of document should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the editorial rules of the ISO/
IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives or www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs).
ISO and IEC draw attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the
use of (a) patent(s). ISO and IEC take no position concerning the evidence, validity or applicability of any
claimed patent rights in respect thereof. As of the date of publication of this document, ISO and IEC had not
received notice of (a) patent(s) which may be required to implement this document. However, implementers
are cautioned that this may not represent the latest information, which may be obtained from the patent
database available at www.iso.org/patents and https://patents.iec.ch. ISO and IEC shall not be held
responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions
related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the World Trade
Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) see ww
...
ISO #####-#:####(X)/IEC DTS 29196
ISO/TC ###/IEC JTC 1/SC 37/WG 4
Secretariat: ANSI
Date: 2024-07-14
Information technology – — Guidance for biometric enrolment
WDTechnologies de l'information — Directives pour l'inscription biométrique
FDIS stage
Warning for WDs and CDs
This document is not an ISO International Standard. It is distributed for review and comment. It is subject to
change without notice and may not be referred to as an International Standard.
Recipients of this draft are invited to submit, with their comments, notification of any relevant patent rights of
which they are aware and to provide supporting documentation.
A model document of an International Standard (the Model International Standard) is available at:
© ISO #### – All rights reserved
ISO #####-#:####(X)
2 © ISO #### – All rights reserved
© ISO/IEC 2025
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, or required in the context of its implementation, no part of this publication
may be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
or posting on the internet or an intranet, without prior written permission. Permission can be requested from either ISO
at the address below or ISO’s member body in the country of the requester.
ISO copyright office
CP 401 • Ch. de Blandonnet 8
CH-1214 Vernier, Geneva
Phone: + 41 22 749 01 11
EmailE-mail: copyright@iso.org
Website: www.iso.orgwww.iso.org
Published in Switzerland
© ISO/IEC 2025 – All rights reserved
iii
Contents
Foreword . v
Introduction . vi
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
4 Abbreviated terms . 4
5 Role of biometric capture processing in a biometric system . 4
6 Stakeholders and approaches for enrolment . 7
6.1 Enrolment stakeholders . 7
6.2 Enrolment approaches . 11
7 Stakeholder interests . 12
7.1 Key observations . 12
7.2 Best practices and recommendations . 13
8 Biometric enrolment capability development . 40
8.1 General . 40
8.2 Enrolment station architecture and design . 41
8.3 System definition . 41
9 Modality specific guidance . 42
9.1 General . 42
9.2 Facial biometric systems . 42
9.3 Fingerprint biometric systems . 45
9.4 Vascular (vein) authentication systems . 47
9.5 Iris biometric systems . 49
10 Mobile applications . 50
10.1 Best practice guidelines . 50
10.2 Fingerprint systems . 51
10.3 Facial image systems . 52
10.4 Iris systems . 53
Bibliography . 55
© ISO/IEC 2025 – All rights reserved
iv
Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical
Commission) form the specialized system for worldwide standardization. National bodies that are members
of ISO or IEC participate in the development of International Standards through technical committees
established by the respective organization to deal with particular fields of technical activity. ISO and IEC
technical committees collaborate in fields of mutual interest. Other international organizations, governmental
and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO and IEC, also take part in the work. In the field of information
technology, ISO and IEC have established a joint technical committee, ISO/IEC JTC 1.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are described
in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the different types of
document should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the editorial rules of the ISO/IEC
Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives or www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs). ).
Attention is drawnISO and IEC draw attention to the possibility that some of the elementsimplementation of
this document may beinvolve the subjectuse of (a) patent(s). ISO and IEC take no position concerning the
evidence, validity or applicability of any claimed patent rights in respect thereof. As of the date of publication
of this document, ISO and IEC had not received notice of (a) patent(s) which may be required to implement
this document. However, implementers are cautioned that this may not represent the latest information,
which may be obtained from the patent database available at www.iso.org/patents and https://patents.iec.ch
rights. ISO and IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of any
patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the Introduction and/or on the ISO
list of patent declarations received (see ).
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation onof the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions
related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the World Trade
Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) see www.iso.org/iso/foreword.html.
In the following URL: IEC, see www.iec.ch/understanding-standards.
This document was prepared by Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology,
Subcommittee SC 37, Biometrics.
This thirdfirst edition cancels and replaces the second edition (ISO/IEC TR 29196:2018), which has been
technically revised and converted into a Technical Specification.
The main changes are as follows:
— recommendations added throughout the document;
— Clause 3 Terms and references modified;
— information about enrolment updated to state of art;
— Annex A removed.
Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A
complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html and www.iec.ch/national-
committees.
© ISO/IEC 2025 – All rights reserved
v
Introduction
One of the most important contributions to a successful biometric recognition system is a consistent biometric
enrolment service (‘("biometric capture process’)process") that stores biometric data captured from
individuals for biometric comparison purposes. Biometric data captured for subsequent verifications or
identifications will beare compared with the biometric data collected at enrolment time. If the quality of the
biometric samples captured for enrolment is not consistently maintained, the performance of the biometric
recognition system is likely to be unreliable. For those who are enrolled in a verification system, a poor quality
enrolment will result inis an inconvenience shouldif they fail to beare not recognized. (Readers of this
document should note that quality
NOTE Quality has a specific meaning when applied to biometric systems, comparesee ISO/IEC 29794-1;: a high
quality capture is one that results in biometric data that provides good comparison scores when compared with other
high quality images from the same biometric feature.).
Principles based on stakeholder requirements can guide the development of system policy that would seek to
ensure that the quality of biometrics samples captured for enrolment are fit for purpose. Where biometric
capture processing is outsourced to a third party, a shared understanding of quality is an extremely important
basis for ensuring the relying party, and the Enrolment Authority,enrolment authority are aligned on what
constitutes a biometric sample of acceptable quality.
Although the recommendations and guidelines in this document are directed primarily to the parties
responsible for the biometric capture process itself and for management of the enrolment service (noting that
these two entities maycan be one and the same), they willare also be of value to the designers and developers
of enrolment systems.
© ISO/IEC 2025 – All rights reserved
vi
Information technology – — Guidance for biometric enrolment
1 Scope
This document consolidates informationgives guidance relating to successful, secure and usable
implementation of biometric enrolment processes, while indicating risk factors that organizations proposing
towhich use biometric technologies shouldcan address during procurement, design, deployment and
operation. Much of the informationthis document is generic to many types of applicationapplications, e.g. from
national scale commercial and government applications, to closed systems for in-house operations, and to
consumer applications. However, the intended application and its purpose often have influence on the
necessary enrolment data quality and are intended to be taken into account when specifying an enrolment
system and process.
TheThis document points outspecifies the differences in operation relating to specific types of application, e.g.
where self-enrolment is more appropriate than attended enrolment. This document focuses on mandatory,
attended enrolment at fixed locations. In summary, this documentIt ultimately consolidates information
relating to better practicepractices for the implementation of biometric enrolment capability in various
business contexts including considerations of process, function (system), and technology, as well as
legal/privacy and policy aspects.
TheThis document provides guidance on collection and storage of biometric enrolment data and the impact
on dependent processes of verification and identification. This document does not include material specific to
forensic and law enforcement applications.
This document does not contain any mandatory requirements. The following terms are used in this document
to provide guidance.
The terms “should” and “should not” indicate that among several possibilities one is recommended as
particularly suitable, without mentioning or excluding others, or that a certain course of action is preferred
but not necessarily required, or that (in the negative form) a certain possibility or course of action is
discouraged but not prohibited.
The term “may” indicates a course of action permissible within the limits of the publication.
The terms “can” and “cannot” indicate a possibility and capability, whether material, physical or causal.
2 Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content constitutes
requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references,
the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
ISO/IEC 2382--37, Information technology — Vocabulary — Part 37: Biometrics
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in ISO/IEC 2382--37 and the following
apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminologicalterminology databases for use in standardization at the following
addresses:
...
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