Sargasso, 20 Feb 2011: 'International alliance launches petition for country study on biometrics storage'

"Through a petition, an international alliance of civil society organisations is calling on the Council of Europe to launch an investigation into the collection and storage of biometric data by member states.

Governments are increasingly demanding biometric data (especially fingerprints and facial scans) from people. This personal data is stored on contactless RFID chips in passports and/or identity cards. Some countries, such as the Netherlands, France and Lithuania, go even further and even store this data in databases.

The newly formed Alliance 'Hands off biometrics' is going to urge Council of Europe Secretary General Jagland to launch an investigation into this. In it, the countries concerned should explain whether their legislation around this issue complies with the [European Convention on Human Rights]. In such an Article 52 procedure, these member states must justify issues such as proportionality, subsidiarity (possible alternatives), effectiveness, purpose limitation, security measures taken and the legal basis for the capture and storage of biometric data.
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The international alliance includes (civil rights) organisations, such as the Belgian League for Human Rights, Techknowledge (Estonia), members of the Dutch Civil Rights Protection Platform (including DeVrijePsych, KDVP, Meldpunt Misbruik ID-plicht, Ouders Online, Privacy First and Vrijbit) and Het Nieuwe Rijk, Poland's Panoptykon, ARCH, NO2ID and Privacy International (UK), the Electronic Frontier Foundation Europe and the Australian Privacy Foundation."

Read HERE the whole article on Sargasso.