NIS research shows that citizens' fingerprints stored in their passports are almost never checked. Since 2009, fingerprints have been included in passports as an additional means of verification at border controls or collecting identification documents. Inquiries by NOS reveal that municipalities, as well as border controls at Schiphol Airport, only exceptionally check fingerprints.
The lack of control is due to too high error rates. A sample showed that about 20% of fingerprints would result in an error message and thus a refusal to issue a passport. There is also a lack of proper scanning equipment and encryption keys are not exchanged with foreign countries for various reasons. Consequently, fingerprints in passports cannot be verified with national databases. The article features biometrics expert Max Snijder: "The fact that we have to hand over fingerprints but not use them is actually inexplicable." He goes on to point to a European Directive that makes fingerprinting mandatory, which means that registration cannot be stopped.
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