By August 2, the new Dutch identity card will be issued. It contains two fingerprints of the holder. The citizen service number (BSN) has also been added to the card as a QR code.The BSN has been removed from the machine readable zone on the front, and from the card's chip. The National Office for Identity Information (RvIG) announced this in the latest issue of the online magazine IDee.
The reason for the new identity card is the European regulation on strengthening identity card security: Regulation (EU) 2019/1157 of June 20, 2019. This requires all ID cards in the EU to bear two fingerprints of the holder. The fingerprints are only stored on the chip of the ID card. Once the card is issued, the fingerprints are deleted from the application systems.
"There is no database with all fingerprints. As a result, citizens need not fear that their fingerprints will be used, for example, for police investigations into unsolved crimes," said Interior Ministry policy adviser Arend-Jan Westerhuis. According to the regulation, the fingerprints may only be used to check whether a person belongs to the document, or to verify that it is an authentic document.
