This document describes the history of biometrics and what biometrics does, the various biometric technologies in general use today (for example, fingerprint recognition and face recognition) and the architecture of the systems and the system processes that allow automated recognition using those technologies. It also provides information about the application of biometrics in various business domains such as border management, law enforcement and driver licensing, the societal and jurisdiction considerations that are typically taken into account in biometric systems, and the international standards that underpin their use.