International standards bodies facilitate global trade and technology interoperability by developing and publishing voluntary technical standards, which ensures that products and services are safe, reliable, and consistent worldwide.

Two of the key organizations that ascertain and maintain these global standards are structured as a multi-level hierarchy of representation and participation: ISO/IEC and ANSI. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) are the primary international standards development organizations. In the United States, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) acts as the official member body to both the ISO and the U.S. National Committee of the IEC, representing U.S. interests at the international level.

ANSI accredits other U.S. organizations, such as the International Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS), which functions as a standards development organization in the field of information technology and provides the technical expertise and input that ANSI uses to form the official U.S. position within ISO/IEC.

The Common Biometric Exchange Formats Framework (CBEFF) is a set of standards (specifically the ISO/IEC 19785 series) that provides a standardized “wrapper” structure for biometric data. It abstracts the biometric payload so that a system can receive a biometric file and read the metadata (header) to understand what the data is (e.g., “This is a fingerprint template created by Vendor A”) without needing to open or process the raw data immediately. This allows different computer systems to easily swap biometric information, like fingerprints or iris scans. Even if System A uses a different technology than System B, CBEFF puts a standard label on the data so System B knows exactly what it is looking at.