Imagine landing at the airport, ready for a long-awaited European getaway – only to face a lengthy wait to clear border control. Why? This is the reality many non-EU travellers may now face with the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES), which began to be phased in during October 2025. It’s a digital overhaul of border control, replacing manual passport stamps with biometric registration, which means that travellers from non-EU countries –including the UK – may now need to provide fingerprints and facial images at the border the first time they travel to the EU since the EES began.
The EU’s move to biometric borders aims to crack down on fraud and other criminality, and to detect and enforce the 90-day rule for short stays. The change is already proving somewhat irritating to travellers in the short-term, with long queues in airports – including in Alicante this November, where some passengers missed flights for onward travel due to delays. Over time however, it should make the process of moving between borders more streamlined and safer. This shift is a good analogy for what’s happening in the tech world too. Change happens quickly and then becomes the norm, albeit sometimes with teething problems as we get to grips with it. It’s easy to forget that just 20 years ago our tech lives looked very different: our phones had no cameras, social media was in its infancy and artificial intelligence was confined to research institutions. Invariably, as technology changes, we might also need to adapt both hardware and software to keep up to speed, as what was cutting-edge just a few years ago can quickly become outdated.
The same can be true of apps: major providers like WhatsApp and banks regularly phase out support for apps run on older devices. The reason is simple – those devices are no longer able to receive important updates from manufacturers such as Apple or Google, which could leave them open to a higher risk of cyber-attacks and fraudsters gaining access to users’ bank accounts. Phasing out app support for older tech can therefore often be a necessary step to ensure apps remain secure, efficient, and compatible with the latest standards.
A good rule of thumb can often be to consider every few years whether an upgrade might be needed: while none of us want to be at the mercy of changes from big tech companies, it can be necessary in order to stay safe online. Just like the switch to biometric borders, this may involve a pain point in the short-term, but with the benefit of longer-term peace of mind.
