It wasn‘t until the turn of the century that this situation changed

It wasn't until the turn of the century that this situation changed. This change first comes from the technical level. In the late 1990s, biometrics technology gradually matured. On the one hand, with the development of hardware technology, the cost of equipment used to collect and analyze "biological keys" has begun to drop significantly. A landmark event was the introduction of the first mobile phone with fingerprint recognition in 1998 by Siemens. Although this was more of a commercial gimmick at the time, later, this design became a key to the popularization of biometrics. On the other hand, the evolution of algorithm technology has also greatly improved the speed and accuracy of biometric identification. Under the combined effect of these two factors, the road for the widespread application of biometrics has been opened up. At the same time, some demand-level factors have greatly promoted the development and popularization of biometric technology. In 2001, the "911" terrorist attack occurred in the United States. After the attack, the US government quickly strengthened its homeland security. In order to ensure local security, the United States has begun to collect biometric information of foreigners on a large scale, and has developed and deployed biometric devices such as facial recognition and fingerprint recognition in the country. This objectively played a huge role in promoting the development of biometric technology.