万花筒 Kaleidoscope2007-11-04&11-05, 指纹护照

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Reuters.

For all Germans applying for a new passport, the experience might feel more akin¹ to going to a police station. From now on, they'll have their fingerprints³ taken. Germany is introducing the 2nd phase of biometric passports. For 2 years, all new German passports have contained a chip which stores biometric data about the passport holder⁴ including a digital photo. But all passports issued from now on will also include the holder's fingerprints. The German government says the new passport will be harder to forge, which will help in the fight against organized crime and terrorism. Officials at Potsdam town hall near Berlin, one place where people apply for a new a passport, say the new system is user- friendly. "We usually take fingerprints from the left and right index fingers with a little scanner. The whole process is clean and uncomplicated. And we don't use any black ink or anything like that." But while most people hope the system is "secure", some citizens groups are critical of the use of fingerprints in passports due to personal liberty concerns. And even the government's data protection officer isn't convinced that storing fingerprint² information on the chip will make the passports less open to forgery⁵. It would be useful if we could reduce the likelihood of forgery. But on the other hand, you have to say that already German and European passports are almost impossible to forge. At least since photos have been stored on chips in our passports, I know of no case where a passport was successfully faked. Critics of the biometric passports have also lambasted the government for failing to review how much the introduction of these documents will cost. The German interior minister says that fingerprints are as unique as people themselves. And these new passports should help government stay one step ahead of criminals. But only time will tell whether storing biometric details on a chip can completely prevent people from faking passports.

Joanna Partridge from Reuters.