The Emirates Identity Authority claims to hold the world’s largest database of civil integrated biometrics and has applied to the World Record Academy to verify its record.

The database holds information from the UAE population register system and as of October 11, it contains 103 million decimal and rounded fingerprints, palm prints, hand print and hand side prints. It also holds 15 million facial prints and digital signatures.

The Emirates Identity Authority (Emirates ID), founded in September 2004, has been working toward completing a population register system that would provide identification and secured verification for every UAE citizen or resident by assigning a unique personal number linked to a person’s biometric characteristics.

This system was developed in 2009 and has grown from its initial size of 14 million prints to today’s 103 million. Emirates ID attributes this growth to reengineering registration procedures and improving the hardware and software needed to capture high quality prints.

Emirates ID uses technology by Morphou Safran Inc. for biometric capture and recognition of eyes, faces and fingerprints.