In January 2013, biometric documents will appear in Ukraine. In Germany, a biometric passport was introduced in 2005. The DW correspondent tried to find out why in Germany these documents are still the subject of heated discussions.
In January 2013, Ukraine will start issuing biometric documents. According to the new law, biometrization of foreign passports, internal passports, as well as driving licenses is provided. In addition, a unified database will be created, the purpose of which is to collect information about citizens for the issuance of relevant documents. Ukrainian human rights activists criticize the new register, considering it an interference with privacy.
Similar discussions are still underway in Germany, where they began to issue biometric passports back in November 2005. In addition to the photograph, a chip embedded on one of the pages of the document also stores other data about the owner, for example, surname, first name, height and eye color. In addition, since 2007, biometric foreign passports contain prints of the index fingers of the left and right hands, which are taken using a special scanner that reads the pattern of the human skin.
Germany became the first EU country to introduce a travel document with complete biometric data of its citizens. The reason for this was a proposal from the United States to change the format of passports for persons entering this country in order to increase the level of document reliability after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Gradual transition
In addition to the biometric passport, in November 2010, a new electronic identity card appeared in Germany, which looks like a credit card. With its help, the Germans can make money transfers on the Web, make transactions, and also draw up documents in government institutions. In addition, the new identity card has a function of electronic identification of the owner eID (electronic Identity), which, if necessary, can confirm the identity of the user on the Internet.
In Germany, biometric documents are being used gradually. German citizens can get them after the expiration of their old passports, but no later than 2020.
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Passports with an electronic microchip are more reliable. It will be more difficult for criminals to forge them or use stolen documents, explained Tove Ernst, spokeswoman for European Commissioner Cecilia Malmström. In addition, border guards will be able to quickly determine the authenticity of the document.
"An unnecessary and dangerous measure"?
Despite the advantages of biometric passports, their introduction in Germany was preceded by a heated debate. They were attended not only by leading politicians, but also by experts in the field of protecting the personal data of citizens. One of the criticisms was the inclusion of digital fingerprints in biometric passports. According to Thilo Weichert, the data protection officer in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein, fingerprints will not make a passport more reliable.
“The government believes that the security of German passports will be improved through electronic fingerprints. This is nonsense. There is hardly another passport so protected from counterfeiting in the world as our German one,”the expert says.
And Wolfgang Wieland, a Green Party expert, considers electronic fingerprinting as "unnecessary and dangerous." The German politician is one of those opponents of electronic documents who warn of the dangers of unauthorized use of biometric data.
Thilo Weichert is also concerned about possible misuse of personal data. “First of all, we are talking about countries with less developed democracies than ours. We do not know what can be done with personal data, including fingerprints,”says the German expert.
According to him, at the moment, when reading information from electronic chips of foreign passports, they still use the same technology as in 2007. Although even then experts spoke of its main drawback: when reading information, the microchip does not check whether the scanner has the right to access electronic data.
In addition, the data stored on the electronic microchip can be read even if the passport is in a pocket or bag. “Already in 2007 we advised to carry biometric passports in a special case in order to prevent illegal reading of the document's biometric data,” the expert emphasized. With the help of special equipment, you can also track the route of movement of the owner of the biometric document.
Fears were not confirmed
However, according to Juliane Heinrich, spokesman for the German government's personal data protection officer, the experts' fears did not materialize. In an interview with DW, she explained that the ability to read information stored on electronic media is very limited.
"The passport, as well as the internal identity card, contain confidential biometric data, which can only be accessed by employees of the relevant services, for example, the border - when checking personal documents," she said. According to Juliana Heinrich, there are no known cases of misuse of biometric data in Germany.
After listening to the criticism of experts, the German authorities have introduced newer equipment for reading data from electronic chips on identity cards. To prevent illegal access to information on the microchip, the latter automatically checks whether the scanner has the right to access electronic data. But, as Thilo Weichert emphasized, even such innovations do not guarantee complete safety, therefore it is necessary to constantly improve the applied technologies.