Taiwan News 01/22/03
Original Link: http://www.etaiwannews.com/Taiwan/2003/01/22/1043203910.htm
All Taiwanese nationals will be required to stamp thumb fingerprints on household registration records when applying for the new national identification cards to be issued in the near future, according to an amendment to the Household Registration Law.
The fingerprints will be used for identification purposes only, and will not be provided to law enforcement agencies to help with investigations of criminal cases, Interior Minister Yu Cheng-hsien said yesterday.
Yu emphasized the need for issuing new ID cards to prevent forgeries, as the design on the existing card has not been revised for 15 years. People fleeing the law have fled abroad using Taiwan passports obtained from fake ID cards, he said.
To ease worries that the measure would infringe upon individual privacy and other human rights, Yu assured that the fingerprints kept at the household registration offices will be used only to identify ID card holders, and will not be provided to law enforcement agencies.
The MOI Civil Affairs Department had earlier introduced three proposals for renewing ID cards, but they were shelved due to opposition from those who are worried that the new policy might turn Taiwan into a police state.
Another consideration was the costs. One of the proposals required the government to buy a large number of expensive software and hardware equipment, such as optical scanners, in order to read and save the fingerprints.
At Yu's request, the Civil Affairs Department introduced the new proposal, which would require all citizens to leave thumb fingerprints for identification purposes. The new proposal has gained wider support from lawmakers of the ruling and opposition parties.
In a measure implemented in Taipei City more than a year ago, more than 100,000 Taipei citizens have volunteered to leave the fingerprints of their index fingers on their household records in exchange for the convenience in their applications for household records and other official documents.