Nederlands Dagblad, 7 May 2010: 'Fingerprint should be taken out of passport again'

"The foundation Privacy First takes court action to end storage of fingerprints of citizens who need a new passport.

According to the foundation, keeping the fingerprints violates privacy laws. The foundation, along with 22 citizens who refuse to give their fingerprints, sued the state, made Privacy First announced yesterday. Fingerprinting is supposed to deter passport and identity fraud, but opponents fear that the data from the database will serve to start fighting crime, especially terrorism. Since September last year, fingerprints have entered passports and identity cards. European rules require this, but according to Privacy First says these rules do not give room to start storing the data as well. According to lawyer Christiaan Alberdingk Thijm, other EU countries go much less far or storage is even prohibited there. It is also not yet known exactly how the data will be stored, until when the fingerprints will be kept and whether this will be done in a secure way. Therefore, according to Privacy First a line through those parts of the passport law that regulate storage. The fingerprints and other data will go into a national administration for travel documents to better combat passport tampering. It is not intended that this data will end up with the police and judiciary, the Home Office says. A spokesperson says that privacy rules were carefully considered when drafting the law. Europe does give member states leeway to start storing the data, the Home Office says."

Source: Nederlands Dagblad 7 May 2010, p. 6.