France Adopts a New Biometric ID Card

March 8, 2012 | By Katitza Rodriguez

"A Time Bomb For Civil Liberties": France Adopts a New Biometric ID Card

This post has been authored by Angela Daly, international legal fellow

On Tuesday March 6, the French National Assembly (Assemblée Nationale) passed a law proposing the creation of a new biometric ID card for French citizens with the justification of combating “identity fraud”. More than 45 million individuals in France will have their fingerprints and digitized faces stored in what would be the largest biometric database in the country. The bill was immediately met with negative reactions. Yesterday more than 200 members of the French Parliament referred it to the Conseil constitutional, challenging its compatibility with Europeans' fundamental rights framework, including the right to privacy and the presumption of innocence. The Conseil will consider whether the law is contrary to the French Constitution.1

The new law compels the creation of a biometric ID card that includes a compulsory chip containing various pieces of personal information, including fingerprints, a photograph, home address, height, and eye color. Newly issued passports will also contain the biometric chip. The information on the biometric chip will be stored in a central database. A second, optional chip will be implemented for online authentication and electronic signatures, which will be used for e-government services and e-commerce.

François Pillet, a French senator, called the initiative a time bomb for civil liberties, warning that those interested in protecting civil liberties must stop the creation of a database that could be transformed into a dangerous, draconian tool.2 EFF couldn’t agree more. Last year, Privacy International, EFF, and 80 other civil liberties organizations asked the Council of Europe to study whether biometrics policies respect the fundamental rights of every European. Governments are increasingly demanding storage of their citizens’ biometric data on chips embedded into identity cards or passports, and centrally kept on government databases, all with little regard to citizens’ civil liberties. France’s National Commission on IT and Freedoms (CNIL) also published a report criticizing the creation of the centralized biometric database.

France does not have a good track record of initiatives involving biometric identification. In 2009, it introduced biometric passports—which proved to be a disaster. Last year, the French Minister of the Interior admitted that 10 percent of biometric passports in circulation were fraudulently obtained. It is therefore ironic that the justification for the biometrics bill was that it is needed to combat identity fraud.

Biometric databases posed a mission-creep threat since the data can be used for reasons beyond identity fraud. The French legislation lists certain crimes in which authorities could use the biometric databases to identify suspects. History has shown that databases in France created for one purpose have been used for others: In 1998 for example, France created a national DNA database of sex offenders, but its scope was expanded to include data from those convicted of other serious violent criminal offences and terrorism. The database was later expanded to include the data of those who committed a wide range of offenses. Anyone suspected of any crime is now compelled to submit a DNA sample as well.

Moreover, the measure is non-proportionate, given that there are less than 10,000 annual instances of fraudulent identity documents reported in France. It is difficult to argue that this justifies fingerprinting and face digitization of an estimated 45 million individuals and storing this information in a central biometric database.

Disturbingly, it seems that there may be other motives behind this bill, besides the prevention of identity fraud. Several documents suggest that French smart cards and biometrics companies, such as Morpho, Oberthur, Thalès, and Gemalto, have been lobbying heavily for the creation of a national biometric identity card as a means of creating domestic market opportunities for French smart card and biometrics companies. Senator Jean-René Lecerf, who introduced the bill, bluntly noted that while French companies are leaders in biometrics technologies, they do not sell anything domestically. He claims that this creates an export disadvantage compared to competitors based in the United States.

EFF urges the Conseil constitutionnel to consider the negative implications of the new law on the rights and freedoms of French citizens, and especially noting the vast disproportionality to its aims. Furthermore, France’s poor track record on biometric passports and databases expanded far beyond their original purpose does not bode well for the success of this new law. This invasive law brings undue interference into citizens’ private lives. The Conseil constitutionnel should reject it as unconstitutional.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/03/french-national-assembly-proposes-new-alarming-biometrics-bill

DHS to announce biometric Exit plans within weeks

07/03/12

The US Department of Homeland Security has said it is putting the finishing touches on a report that lays out details of how an effective biometric exit strategy can be implemented in the USA.

The US-VISIT scheme has been very successful in automatically checking the fingerprints and photos of visitors entering the United States, but the exit component of the system has been difficult to bring into fruition.

DHS Deputy Counterterrorism Coordinator John Cohen told a Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border Security that it is DHS' intention to put forth the plan within the next 30 days.

One immediate advantage of a biometric exit strategy would be to prevent criminals from faking their exits. For example, a visa holder would not be able to use a conspirator to fly out of the country using his identification papers.

To listen to the testimony click here.

http://www.planetbiometrics.com/article-details/i/1050/

Chile awards Morpho ID doc contract

05/03/12

Morpho (Safran group) has signed a 10-year contract with Chile’s national records administration (Servicio de Registro Civil e Identificación) to produce e-ID cards and e-Passports under the country’s new identification and ID and travel document issuance system.

The company will provide end-to-end secure ID management and document production based on its latest-generation identity management solution. Under the contract, Morpho will also supply enrollment stations for capturing biometric data (photos and fingerprints).

For additional security, the ID cards and passport data pages will be manufactured in highly secure production sites, using polycarbonate, the most resistant material on the market today.

Jean-Paul Jainsky, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Morpho, commented: “Chile is the first Latin American country to select polycarbonate ID documents supplied by Morpho.”

Morpho says it has deployed biometric and identity systems in 17 countries in the Latin American region to date.

http://www.planetbiometrics.com/article-details/i/1047/

DigitalPersona U.are.U 5100 Fingerprint Module achieves FBI PIV Certification

28/02/12

DigitalPersona has announced that the company’s U.are.U 5100 series of fingerprint readers and modules has achieved Personal Identity Verification (PIV) certification. The U.are.U 5100 series makes high-efficiency, standards-compliant biometrics practical for handheld ID terminals, and is designed to support a growing number of Civil ID applications such as voting, benefits-checking and micro-finance.

The U.are.U 5100 meets and exceeds the Federal Information Processing Standard 201 (FIPS201) Personal Identity Verification (PIV) Image Quality Specification, a key industry standard. It produces 500 dpi fingerprint images in ANSI and ISO/IEC standard formats. The module is now certified by the FBI to be PIV-071006 compliant and is registered in the IAFIS Certified Products List.

For the full story click here

Surveillance

FBI seeks system to monitor social networking sites

The FBI, seeking to monitor conversations on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, recently placed a request for information from technology companies to develop a system capable of automatically sifting through the torrents of “publicly available” data for keywords relating to terrorism, crime, and other matters of national security
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/topics/surveillance

Electronic Biometric Voter Registration

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We Support the UN Global Compact

CODE Inc. subscribes to the principles outlined in the United Nations Global Compact. We adhere to the tenets, and take special care to actively pursue their fulfillment. Whether going to India to ensure the eligibility of a supplier’s labour pool or providing full supervision and quality control during kit consolidation in Mexico, ethical business practices have been an integral part of our success. http://codeinc.com/voter-registration.htm ~ FROM: UN GLOBAL COMPACT http://www.unglobalcompact.org/ What is the Global Compact? The United Nations Global Compact is a strategic policy initiative for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. Overall, the Global Compact pursues two complementary objectives: Mainstream the ten principles in business activities around the world Catalyze actions in support of broader UN goals, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

zone wrote:Surveillance

FBI seeks system to monitor social networking sites




The FBI, seeking to monitor conversations on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, recently placed a request for information from technology companies to develop a system capable of automatically sifting through the torrents of “publicly available” data for keywords relating to terrorism, crime, and other matters of national security
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/topics/surveillance

...

I wonder if Billy J Dial will be involved in this one? It's his speciality.

I notice his group the 'United Noahide Council' have now morphed into 'United Council For Humanity'.

Chameleon.

Anyway...uhm....ya.....still holding off on a facebook account.

Strangelove wrote:
I wonder if Billy J Dial will be involved in this one? It's his speciality.

I notice his group the 'United Noahide Council' have now morphed into 'United Council For Humanity'.

Chameleon.

Billy Jack Dial


United Council For Humanity

(have 'nother scotch n soda BillyJ)
chump.