Dutch Fingerprint Database

(Netherlands) Controversy is simmering on the proposed Dutch national fingerprint database.

Presumably, everyone will be fingerprinted, unlike the U.S. where just criminal suspects and specialized occupations are fingerprinted.

Fingerprints taken for biometric passports will - temporarily - not be stored in a national database. Interior Minister Piet Hein Donner will debate the question in parliament on Wednesday afternoon.

Support for creating a national database has weakened recently. The free-market liberal VVD - the largest coalition party in government – was originally in favour of storing fingerprint data, but has now joined the Labour and Christian Union parties in opposing the passport law.

Storage reliability questionable VVD MP Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said doubts about the system’s reliability, error margin, and potential for manipulation led her party to reconsider their stance.

The Socialist Party, the democrat party D66, Green Left and the Animal Welfare Party opposed the central database from the outset.

Frankly, I suggest the reliability argument is weak. Fingerprint databases have proven to be reliable in other countries.

In any event, it seems odd that all the leftist groups are opposed. Typically, leftists favor government monitoring and control of the population. And what better way is there to identify people for monitoring than fingerprints?