Isn't it like this in practically every European country? We have ID cards with every one of those fields printed on them, including thumbprints. All of that information is probably in one big table somewhere.
In some European countries, you could already just ask the user to insert his national ID smartcard into a reader and get a digital file with basic info (essentially what's printed on the front).
Sort of a tangent, but I wonder if there are any EU countries that have mandatory biometric ID cards. After a cursory (5-10 minute) search I found countries that either used to have ID cards but currently don't, used to have biometric ID cards but currently don't require biometrics, or have biometric ID cards that are optional. It does seem likely that in the future some country will, if it hasn't already, concede and mandate ID cards that contain biometrics.
Practically, anyway, GDPR seems like a much more effective measure.
So EU has mandated that all id cards have your fingerprints in it. Thus requiring to scan your fingerprints and store it in digital form.
My id card is going to expire soon and I feel very unease that my country treats me like a dangerous criminal. I did nothing to justify that. Also I don’t believe anybody that they won’t store them in their databases nor that they are safe. There is no 100% safe system in the world and history teaches us, that if someone has your personal data, he will keep it as long as he can.
So, to the point. I was searching through the web if there’s any way to decline providing my fingerprints or any stories of people who did this. And there’s nothing to be found. Is this possible? That no one has tried that and written about it? Or do we live in such Orwellian world, that information like that is not allowed to be found or submitted to any major site?
Italian ID cards too, as well as the owner's signature, the fiscal code (an unique identification code similar to the SSN in the USA) and the fingerprints (though these latter are stored in the chip only, not printed on the card).
It's very likely that this data is also stored in some government database, which I hope will never get breached.
looks like you haven't lived in 5 European countries and have to interact with all of them for things like taxes, pensions, vehicles registrations, and with mobile phones numbers that change, 2FAs that go crazy, passwords that expire etc. etc.
Yes, a common electronic ID is an absolute godsend. Can't wait for it to be implemented on every fricking public administration website.
Understood - but most EU states would have a national ID card which would make them ‘known’ to their own government. Not sure if all include biometrics (I know that the ID cards here in France are not all like that, though passports today are) but national ID cards cover all adults and children. Just seems weird that they would not include a couple of hundred million people that they definitely know something about by virtue of their citizenship of an EU country.
Interesting fact. I thought that having an ID card is pretty much mandatory in whole EU. In Slovakia you get one at age of 15 (I think) and it has biometric data - picture and fingerprints. You are not required by law to carry it with you, but it can cause delays if need to be verified by police or other authority. It’s also used to login into e-gov services with a card reader and your pin - but it’s quite limited at this point.
> Millions of people in the UK don’t have a passport or driving licence and there’s no magic document that lets everyone prove their identity.
That's why most(all?) EU countries have ID cards which are (usually? sometimes? probably depends on the country) mandatory. Especially the new EU standard version, which will of course take time to be deployed everywhere, is pretty great with a chip containing the biometric and other data allowing for automatic verification ( via an app or device at certain places, like airports).
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