Post by Shadow on Dec 2, 2005 17:49:31 GMT -5
EU ministers approve biometric ID, fingerprint data sharing
Prison Planet
The European biometric ID card takes another step forward this week, with the European Justice and Home Affairs Council set to approve "minimum security standards" for national ID cards. Alongside this the Council will be roadmapping the rollout of Europe's biometric visa system, which will contain the fingerprints of 70 million people within the next few years, and hearing European Commission proposals for greater sharing of fingerprint data.
The latter proposals cover the existing Schengen Information System (SIS), its Visa Information System successor (VIS/Schengen II), and the EURODAC database of asylum seekers and illegal immigrants, but the Commission will also be raising "other initiatives", including the consideration of "a system for monitoring entry and exit movements", a "frequent traveller" system and the creation of "a European criminal Automated Fingerprints Identification System (AFIS)." So although some European states (not the UK) are strongly against the creation of a central biometric database of all their citizens, the construction of large-scale pan-European fingerprint systems proceeds apace.
The "minimum security standards" to be adopted for ID cards are effectively those already adopted for the European biometric passport, "bearing in mind the need for interoperability based on ICAO standards", and consist of an RFID chip containing facial and two fingerprint biometrics. Applicants will be required to attend in person (as is already planned in the UK), and "applications should be verified by authorised personnel against existing databases... for example, civil registers, passport and identity cards databases or driving licence registers."
Prison Planet
The European biometric ID card takes another step forward this week, with the European Justice and Home Affairs Council set to approve "minimum security standards" for national ID cards. Alongside this the Council will be roadmapping the rollout of Europe's biometric visa system, which will contain the fingerprints of 70 million people within the next few years, and hearing European Commission proposals for greater sharing of fingerprint data.
The latter proposals cover the existing Schengen Information System (SIS), its Visa Information System successor (VIS/Schengen II), and the EURODAC database of asylum seekers and illegal immigrants, but the Commission will also be raising "other initiatives", including the consideration of "a system for monitoring entry and exit movements", a "frequent traveller" system and the creation of "a European criminal Automated Fingerprints Identification System (AFIS)." So although some European states (not the UK) are strongly against the creation of a central biometric database of all their citizens, the construction of large-scale pan-European fingerprint systems proceeds apace.
The "minimum security standards" to be adopted for ID cards are effectively those already adopted for the European biometric passport, "bearing in mind the need for interoperability based on ICAO standards", and consist of an RFID chip containing facial and two fingerprint biometrics. Applicants will be required to attend in person (as is already planned in the UK), and "applications should be verified by authorised personnel against existing databases... for example, civil registers, passport and identity cards databases or driving licence registers."