Wanted for Conspiracy and Identity Theft!

Privacy International and the UK’s NO2ID launched a campaign to show the dangers of the collection of fingerprints into central government databases. They offered a reward for the first person to collect and submit the UK Prime Minister’s and Home Secretary’s fingerprints. This was done to raise the awareness amongst politicians of the dangers of collecting this type of biometric data. The Privacy International blog explains the campaign in these words:

Around the world, politicians are now calling for the mass fingerprinting of foreigners. The UK is relatively unique in that the Government is calling for the collection of all ten fingerprints of all citizens and residents and placing them into a single centralised database for wide access by police, and other government agencies. The Government is clear that it wants to treat all citizens as though they are criminals, having promised the police that they can trawl through the fingerprint database for forensic purposes.

Following recent data breach scandals, including the loss of 25 million records on British families, we are not confident in the ability of the Government to secure this information. In fact, even the Government’s advisors, including the recent report for HM Treasury by Sir James Crosby argues against the collection of unique biometrics; but the Home Office insists that it will continue along this hazardous path. As fingerprinting systems expand to enable people to secure their computers, possessions and even homes, the centralisation of biometrics will increase the risks of breaches.