All passport holders to be fingerprinted
Discussion
www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/17867379?version=1
All passport holders to be fingerprinted
By Lech Mintowt-czyz, Evening Standard
12 April 2005
Every person applying for a new passport will have to be fingerprinted from next year, it emerged today.
Plans to fingerprint every British national were thought to have been temporarily abandoned when legislation to bring in identity cards was scrapped earlier this month.
But it has now been revealed that the Government plans to use powers it holds in Common Law to force people applying for new passports to do so in person and provide a fingerprint.
The change will initially affect the 600,000 a year who apply for a passport for the first time but is expected to be extended to all renewals - some five million a year - within months.
The police are to be given the authority to carry out checks against this newly created national fingerprint database.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke has authorised the passport service to expand massively the number of offices it runs, from seven to over 70, so that it can cope with the new system.
A ?415million funding boost to the passport service to introduce these new "biometric passports" has already been agreed with the Treasury, according to The Guardian newspaper.
Civil liberty campaigners fear that, with 80 per cent of British citizens holding a passport, the new fingerprint database will open up the potential of routine identity checks using fingerprint scanners, whether or not the individual is carrying a passport at the time.
All passport holders to be fingerprinted
By Lech Mintowt-czyz, Evening Standard
12 April 2005
Every person applying for a new passport will have to be fingerprinted from next year, it emerged today.
Plans to fingerprint every British national were thought to have been temporarily abandoned when legislation to bring in identity cards was scrapped earlier this month.
But it has now been revealed that the Government plans to use powers it holds in Common Law to force people applying for new passports to do so in person and provide a fingerprint.
The change will initially affect the 600,000 a year who apply for a passport for the first time but is expected to be extended to all renewals - some five million a year - within months.
The police are to be given the authority to carry out checks against this newly created national fingerprint database.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke has authorised the passport service to expand massively the number of offices it runs, from seven to over 70, so that it can cope with the new system.
A ?415million funding boost to the passport service to introduce these new "biometric passports" has already been agreed with the Treasury, according to The Guardian newspaper.
Civil liberty campaigners fear that, with 80 per cent of British citizens holding a passport, the new fingerprint database will open up the potential of routine identity checks using fingerprint scanners, whether or not the individual is carrying a passport at the time.
Plotloss said:IMO there are two issues:
Fingerprints can be digitally stored via algorithm.
Thats open to abuse/failure and I dont like it one bit.
1) The software system is bound to be overpriced and cost the tax payer millions. It'll likely not work the first time round. The data will be open to all the forces (police etc) and as such will open to corruption and fiddling.
2) The current "justice" system of "Innocent until proven guilty" will disappear as searches are carried out according to a fingerprint that has been found at a crime scene.
I see this the same way as the ID card scam!
Plotloss said:
A photo that has a counterpart on file in the form of another hard copy photo.
Fingerprints can be digitally stored via algorithm.
Thats open to abuse/failure and I dont like it one bit.
We have to balance civil liberties against eliminating incorrect use of passports.
I would not be worried myself if the authorities had my finger prints.
JagLover said:
We have to balance civil liberties against eliminating incorrect use of passports.
a) It will not work. Fingerprint readers are no more than 90-95% accurate. So that's 1 in every 10 to 1 in every 20 people who will get the full treatment for no reason whatsoever.
b) Fingerprint readers can be fooled. There are several guides on the web on how to do this. You need a few quids worth of jelly type substances and a bit of practise.
c) Terrorists can travel on correctly obtained documents. Richard Reid was on a correct UK passport. Some of the 9/11 people were on correct passports.
So in conclusion, it will cost a bunch of money, it will not catch terrorists and it will cause a lot of hassle for ordinary travelers. And that's ignoring the civil liberties issues!
Edited to add - just because the Americans are spending large suums of cash on something dumb, doesn't mean we should too. Though we seem to be doing so on everything else...
>> Edited by Duncan23 on Wednesday 13th April 12:52
I'm interested to know what happens to those photographs and fingerprints in the US.
There must be over 10 million people that fly in or out of the US a day.
Thats a data processing task on a nearly unprecedented scale.
I bet you that if they had to get that data quickly it wouldnt be an easy task.
There must be over 10 million people that fly in or out of the US a day.
Thats a data processing task on a nearly unprecedented scale.
I bet you that if they had to get that data quickly it wouldnt be an easy task.
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