The European Court of Justice ruled on 17 October 2013 that the inclusion of the fingerprints in the EU electronic passports is lawful.

While the Court acknowledged that taking and storing of fingerprints in passports constitutes an infringement of the rights to respect for private life and the protection of personal data, it ruled that security is more important than privacy and such measures are justified for the purpose of preventing any fraudulent use of passports.

The ruling also claims that the measure of taking fingerprints is not that sensitive, because it "involves no more than the taking of prints of two fingers, which can, moreover, generally be seen by others, so that this is not an operation of an intimate nature."

The decision admits that the electronic pass

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Deutsch: EuGH befasst sich mit biometrischen Reisepässen

The Dutch administrative court asked the European Court of Justice (ECJ) whether the EU Regulation obliging member states to store fingerprints in passports and travel documents infringes the right to privacy.

This is a result of four cases in which Dutch applicants had been refused the issuing of their passports because they did not accept to provide their fingerprints.

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Deutsch: Frankreich: Biometrie-Datenbank verfassungswidrig

The French Constitutional Council found the law proposing the introduction of a new biometric ID for French citizens as unconstitutional.

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Deutsch: Britische Regierung bricht ihr Versprechen DNA-Daten zu löschen

In Britain, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government has announced that it will not delete the DNA records of suspects who were arrested but subsequently acquitted or never charged.

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Deutsch: Europarat lehnt Biometrie-Untersuchung ab

In an answer to the 31 March 2011 petition calling the Council of Europe (CoE) to start an in-depth survey under Article 52 of the European Convention on Human Rights, Thorbjørn Jagland, the Secretary General of the CoE refused to start an investigation on the collection and storage of citizens' biometric data by member states.

In his answer, Secretary General Jagland mainly points to the CoE Resolution 1797, adopted in March 2011.

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Deutsch: Allianz ersucht Europarat um Untersuchung der staatlichen Nutzung biom...

An international alliance of organisations, including EDRi and several EDRi-members, and individuals from 27 countries has lodged a petition calling on the Council of Europe to start an in-depth survey on the collection and storage of biometric data by member states.

European governments are increasingly demanding the storage of biometric data (fingerprints and facial scans) from individuals. These include storage on contactless "RFID" chips in passports and/or ID cards.

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Macedonian: Последен повик за петиција за владина....

Deutsch: Petition gegen die Nutzung biometrischer Daten durch den Staat

By means of a petition, the international Alliance 'Hands off biometrics' will urge the Council of Europe to start an investigation on the collection and storage of biometric data by Member States.

European governments are increasingly demanding storage of biometric data (fingerprints and facial scans) from individuals.

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Deutsch: Oberster Britischer Gerichtshof prüft DNS-Fälle

Following a decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), the UK Coalition Government has recently stated its intention to dramatically reduce the retention period of DNA data.