Fingerprints on the identity card are mandatory. But many consider this to be unsafe, unnecessary or inappropriate for the rule of law. Today the European Court of Justice is deciding on the legality.
Back in 2008, the Chaos Computer Club wanted to show that fingerprints don’t necessarily mean more security. Activists seized a water glass that the then Federal Minister of the Interior, Wolfgang Schäuble, had used – and thus obtained his fingerprints.
Other activists from the organization Digitalcourage even had a stamp made of these fingerprints to show that they could be reproduced at will.
Imprint for eternity
Rena Tangens from Digitalcourage doesn’t think it’s a good idea to store fingerprints on ID cards because of the long-term risks: “I can’t change a fingerprint and a fingerprint can easily be obtained by other people.” A password can be changed if it is compromised. This doesn’t work with biometric data.
Treated like a suspect?
The former mayor of the Hessian community of Hühnerbad, Detlev Sieber, sees it the same way. The SPD politician had applied for an identity card that would not store fingerprints – but the responsible office rejected this. Since August 2021, all new identity cards in Germany must also contain the fingerprints of the person concerned.
“For me, having to give fingerprints feels like being treated as a suspect in a crime,” says Sieber. That does not correspond to his understanding of “how our constitutional state should work.”
The obligation to store fingerprints in the identity card is based on EU law. That is why the Wiesbaden Administrative Court referred the matter to the highest EU court, the European Court of Justice (ECJ), in Luxembourg when Detlev Sieber sued.
Risk of hacker attack
At the oral hearing in Luxembourg just over a year ago, another problem was also raised: that the prints are not only stored on the chip of the identity card, but can also be kept by the authorities for up to 90 days after acceptance.
This is a very big risk, says Rena Tangens from Digitalcourage. This would allow hackers or foreign secret services to obtain the prints. There have been many cases in the past.
In 2022, people’s data was stolen in a hacker attack on the district administration in Ludwigshafen. And they were then published on the dark web. In October 2023 there was a hacker attack on IT service providers in North Rhine-Westphalia – affecting around 70 municipalities in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The ECJ voted yes for the passport
As far as fingerprints in passports are concerned, the EU’s highest court ruled in 2013 that this was permissible. The recording and storage is an intrusion into private life, but the priority is to prevent people from entering the EU illegally. Whether the ECJ argues similarly regarding identity cards will become clear when the judgment is announced today.
Fingerprints for security in Europe
The attorney general, i.e. the expert who gives her opinion in advance, had no problem with storing fingerprints in identity cards. In a united Europe you can only travel with an identity card, and fingerprints also provide a certain level of security.
Gigi Deppe, SWR, tagesschau, March 20, 2024 4:14 p.m