Finland wants to fight crime by using fingerprints stored on passports and identity cards. However, the crime must be serious enough to qualify for this. The Interior Ministry is now investigating whether this is possible with current European privacy rules. So writes the Finnish site YLE News.
The ministry investigated back in 2014 whether fingerprints could be used to track crooks. Researchers concluded at the time that fingerprints from passports should not be used for detection. Finland's Constitutional Law Committee did not want to burn its fingers on that.
The matter is now being re-examined. Last year, the use of biometric data -such as a fingerprint- came up for discussion again in the Finnish parliament. The reason for this was the EU directive on the processing of biometric data by the police was amended.
Because of this adjustment, the situation may now be completely different, an Interior Department official told YLE News. Therefore, the department is having the issue re-examined.
Also, researchers are looking at identification possibilities using biometric photographs. Automatic identification using facial recognition may be possible as a result.
In the Netherlands and abroad, the use of real-time facial recognition by facial recognition technology is a hot topic. Opponents fear that this is a prelude to the establishment of a surveillance society. American technology companies and advocacy groups such as IBM, Amazon and EFF have argued that facial recognition technology may encourage discrimination, racial inequality and ethnic profiling.
Even in Finland, not everyone is eager to use biometric data in crime prevention. Professor of public law Tomi Voutilainen thinks the use of these identifiers for crime prevention are problematic. "If the police continuously, regularly, automatically and massively processed our biometric data, we would all be suspected of a crime. We should not end up in that situation," he told YLE News.
If it were up to the Interior Ministry, biometric data for detection would only be allowed to be used in cases of serious crimes, such as murder, attempted murder, rape or a terrorist attack. Voutilainen argues that the use of fingerprints on passports and other identity documents should be allowed only when the range of crimes is limited. At the same time, he warns that even in that case, fingerprints on passports will regularly be used to solve crimes.
The Finnish police are in favor of the proposal. Indeed, the police advocate that the investigation should also look at whether it is permissible to collect fingerprints from foreigners. The report will most likely be released in September.
