Taiwan Rights Groups Revolt Over Fingerprint ID

Taiwan News | June 20 2005

Taiwan rights groups have scored an early success in their campaign to stop national fingerprinting which they say could turn the island into a police state not 20 years after the lifting of martial law.

Proponents of "biometric" cards, which record attributes unique to an individual including fingerprints, say they reduce identity fraud and illegal immigration. A fingerprint databank also helps solve crimes and identify missing persons.

But with the memory of four decades of martial law fresh in their minds -- it was lifted almost two decades ago in 1987 -- rights activists deride mandatory fingerprinting as an affront.

The Interior Ministry had initially planned to start the new policy from July 1, which would require all citizens over 14 to be fingerprinted when they apply for ID cards.

But the government delayed the move due to the uproar caused by the rights groups, and asked judges to rule on whether it violated the constitution. An answer is expected within six months.

"It sets a terrifying precedent. The government can in the future cite social security as an excuse to build a DNA database, scan iris patterns, or even plant global positioning chips into people," said Fort Liao, a human rights lawyer.

"It would be a serious reversal of the progress we've made in Taiwan," said Liao.

Biometric identification has gained popularity since the September 11 attacks on the United States. The Netherlands will pilot a scheme later this year to allow passengers flying between New York and Amsterdam to pass through border controls using a biometric card.

The scheme is the first of its kind to be launched between the United States and a European country and, if it works, could be adopted elsewhere.

"Human rights values are an important differentiating factor between Taiwan and China. If we engage in an all-round collection of fingerprints, I fear we may lose that advantage," Vice President Annette Lu said in a newspaper editorial.

"That could cause Taiwan, a democratic country, to become an international laughing stock," she wrote.

The Interior Ministry, in charge of the policy, said it would respect any ruling by the court on the cards. But Deputy Interior Minister Chien Tai-lang rejected the idea that the new ID cards violated personal privacy.

"If we use the fingerprint database to help a senile man, or an unknown person who collapsed in the streets, or to identify a dead body, then we're protecting human rights," he told reporters.

Regulations on fingerprinting for ID cards were actually approved by parliament in 1997, after a spate of high-profile murders fuelled public fears of deteriorating social order. But the policy was never implemented, and in 2001 Taiwan suspended compulsory fingerprinting for men fulfilling their compulsory military service due to human rights concerns.