Fingerprinting for new passports starts

Victor Vella

Jun 30th 2010, 21:40

Fingerprints of individuals for new passaports go contrary to the data protection act. They can be used against individuals and can be used to frame up innocent people. This is not new and happened several times. If it is an EU directive it is rubish and it's a pity that the Maltese people had voted to a directive that existed in communist and fascist era. This is what one calls in modern Europe parlance democatic communist era. This is all playing with words instead of saying postmodern communism europa.

MBorg

Jun 30th 2010, 18:25

The Uk do not have Identity cards, because people objected to showing their personal details to all and sundry., and we are going to have our fingerprints on passports ? Do we have to show our fingerprints at every airport we visit ? What about identity theft ? Is it compulsory or can we opt out of having passports with our fingerprints? This is a very serious thing the Govrnment would do well to rethink this move. We do not need to show the world how in we are with new technology at the expense of our peace of mind.

Charmaine Marmara'

Jun 30th 2010, 18:12

@marvin spagnol......prosit well said agree with you 100%

Pamela Hansen

Jun 30th 2010, 14:04

This is so typical of the Maltese government that seems to regard all citizens as potential criminals. Hence the road blocks in a country not at war or under any kind of alert, such as a terrorist threat, and now fingerprints required for our new passports. What next?
Can some hotshot civil rights lawyer tell us whether we can refuse to give our fingerprints and still be issued with a passport.

Karl Consiglio

Jun 30th 2010, 11:39

Is this supposed to be like really advanced or something?

N. Bonello

Jun 29th 2010, 21:42

'EU directive' ?
Please state references as I doubt that there is an EU directive.

A quick search found - http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/ahrc/script-ed/vol4-3/hornung.asp

'In the course of the legislative procedure of the EU Passport Regulation, the European Parliament firmly opposed the storage of fingerprint data, the mandatory part was restricted to facial images, leaving the issue of fingerprints to the discretion of each Member State'.

s maynard

Jun 29th 2010, 11:55

Why does a small country like Malta need a driving license, an ID card and a passport ? God know what the total cost of these must be for you. It seems an unnecessary administrative burden to bear. Being British I have never seen the point of ID cards existing alongside passports, and judging by your prices, its really effectively a tax! Adding finger prints seems a really crazy extra cost for you to have to bear, maybe a job creation scheme ? Retina scans coming next ?

S Zammit

Jun 28th 2010, 23:34

A couple of questions come to mind immidiately after reading this article.

Why keep a database if no one is going to use it?

And since within the EU (schengen area) we can travel without the passport who is the end beneficiary of this scheme, is "it" within the EU or outside of the EU?

I'm assuming that the idea behind storing the info on the passport is to have someone being able to retrieve it. If yes, who will be able to retrive the biometric data? If there will be entities able to read the biometric information, are they bound to store the data for a definite period, and what controls does the Maltese goverment have on these entities?

Because its useless promising that the database will not be shared if a similar database, without the same restrictions, can be build elsewhere through passport scanning. It would be something like: Policemen in Russia ask their US counterpart for the finger prints of a Maltese citizen knowing he travelled to the US and no restrictions apply on the database in the US.

lgalea

Jun 28th 2010, 22:55

It-tariffi kollha tal-passaporti jridu jitħallsu bil-quddiem.

It-tariffi kurrenti huma kif ġej:
PASSAPORT GĦAL PERSUNI LI GĦALQU 16 IL-SENA € 70
PASSAPORT GĦAL MINURI BEJN 10 U 15 IL-SENA € 35
PASSAPORT GĦAL TFAL TAĦT L-10 SNIN € 14
AMMINISTRAZZJONI TA’ ĠURAMENT (passaporti biss) € 10
TRADUZZJONI BL-GĦARBI FUQ IL-PASSAPORT € 6
PASSAPORT KOLLETTIV € 85
DOKUMENT ta’ IDENTITÀ / DOKUMENT ta’ EMERĠENZA € 8
PASSAPORT DIPLOMATIKU (maħruġ biss b’awtorità) € 35
DOKUMENT TAL-IVVJAĠĠAR TAR-REFUĠJATI (l-etajiet kollha) € 55
PASSAPORT GĦALL-STRANĠIER (l-etajiet kollha) €37
IT-TIENI PASSAPORT (jinħareġ b’awtorità speċjali) € 120
PASSAPORT URĠENTI (maħruġ fi żmien 4 sigħat) € 120
PASSAPORT URĠENTI (maħruġ wara l-ħin tax-xogħol u f’każijiet speċjali biss) € 165
PASSAPORT GĦAL PERSUNI LI GĦALQU 16 IL-SENA € 70

Why do foreigners pay €37 and Maltese citizens pay €70 (over 16)?

V Caruana

Jun 28th 2010, 19:40

"The database of the fingerprints is very secure and the data cannot be shared or accessed by anyone, not even the police, the officials said." I'don't believe this! Just read on! this happenened in our courts were "justice" is carried out http://www.it-torca.com/news.asp?newsitemid=9799

N. Bonello

Jun 28th 2010, 19:37

'EU directive' ? Please state references as I doubt that there is an EU directive. Don't give me full page adverts justifying your decision give me verifiable facts. PS: Did a quick search on this and found the following from - http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/ahrc/script-ed/vol4-3/hornung.asp: 'In the course of the legislative procedure of the EU Passport Regulation, the European Parliament firmly opposed the storage of fingerprint data.35 I7sym">36 the mandatory part was restricted to facial images, leaving the issue of fingerprints to the discretion of each Member State'.

J Oatmon

Jun 28th 2010, 19:06

Malta is way behind in ID technology, for example Indonesia (supposedly a 3rd world country), has had a requirement for fingerprints on it's driving licenses for about 7 years now. They use a digital fingerprint reader and the 'print' is part of the license along with a photograph - it is the same size card as the Malta license.

M Mealclaff

Jun 28th 2010, 19:05

I dont think this a Mandatory thing by EU. In UK They do not have Fingerprint Passports in Fact the New UK Govt has scrapped plans for ID Cards. Are there any other EU countries that have Fingerprint Passports ? Malta is the only one I know of..

Charles Sammut

Jun 28th 2010, 18:38

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2006/aug/07/hacking.security http://current.com/technology/92207681_biometric-passport-hacked-elvis-checked-in-amsterdam-airport.htm Just 2 of 12,300 results from Googling "hacking biometric passports"

Conrad Costa

Jun 28th 2010, 18:10

my dear friends, it's easier than you think to fry an RFID-tagged passport or a biometric chip. think EMP waves biometric does not mean foolproof either. http://www.darkreading.com/security/vulnerabilities/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=211201297 http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2007/08/epassport regards, cc

Conrad Costa

Jun 28th 2010, 18:07

@Mark Galea "Privacy protects us from abuses by those in power, even if we're doing nothing wrong at the time of surveillance. ... Privacy is a basic human need. Too many wrongly characterize the debate as "security versus privacy." The real choice is liberty versus control. Tyranny, whether it arises under threat of foreign physical attack or under constant domestic authoritative scrutiny, is still tyranny. Liberty requires security without intrusion, security plus privacy. Widespread police surveillance is the very definition of a police state. And that's why we should champion privacy even when we have nothing to hide. -Bruce Schneier

I Abela

Jun 28th 2010, 16:46

Careful with those fingerprint passports dear citizens. It's easy for the minister to say that nobody has access to them, but do you really believe him? Just ONE error / mistake from the authorities could put the entire population at risk. Consider that a rubber stamp machine from ebay or a DIY CNC engraver could replicate any graphic. I do have one of these machines. Now imagine if the database where to fall in my hands!! I could literally silicon engrave any fingerprint of any Maltese Citizen. Now just imagine ME making a serious crime and stamping YOUR finger print all over the crime scene. Think about it. AND MAKE AN INFORMED DECISION before rushing to the passport office.

Anthony Cardona

Jun 28th 2010, 14:43

"The database of the fingerprints is very secure and the data cannot be shared or accessed by anyone, not even the police, the officials said." My question is, who will access this data? In case of national security and other similar scenarios, police and other third parties will access this data. The Officials need not to impress us much.

Ismael Azzopardi

Jun 28th 2010, 14:34

oh come on, what security? A dutch company hacked a biometric passport in 5 minutes time from it's first release lol, What a joke!

D.Galea

Jun 28th 2010, 14:26

And what if the police ask for a particular fingerprint by court order? this alone nullifies any statements to the contrary. Not all can be fooled all the time.

As for Security, make no mistakes. Everything can be leaked and eventually is to different extents.

Ramon Casha

Jun 28th 2010, 14:21

Here's one reason for concern:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/03/hackers-publish/

Fenech MD

Jun 28th 2010, 14:17

Jekk ma jinbidlux dawn huma t-tariffi tal-passaporti:

http://gov.mt/frame.asp?l=1&url=http://www.passaporti.gov.mt

Ma nohodiex bi kbira li jinbidlu t-tariffi la se jzidu xi haga.

Robert Zammit

Jun 28th 2010, 14:17

If What happened Airport without power ? "Fingerprinting for new passports starts" FAIL,,,,,,

Mark Galea

Jun 28th 2010, 14:12

I have no problem that police can access my fingerprints, as long as we live in a democratic country. On the other hand, a criminal may be offended by such measures.

joe gravina

Jun 28th 2010, 14:02

A great advance in civil rights: the fingerprint famed for criminal identification is now used for all. The journalist is very careful to protect the Infrastructure minister by informing us it is an EU directive. S/he passes absolutely no comment. A PR statement presented as news. Besides, it helps to put the blame on them (i.e. it is merely an EU directive). You might think that we are outside, have nothing to do with the EU, but unfortunately we have to abide. Thank you very much for this increase in the respect of citizens' dignity. Of course, our fingerprint will save us from terrorists. Will the EU, in the future, force us (i.e. direct us) to have our bodies photographed at the airport?

Paul Smith

Jun 28th 2010, 13:44

Can someone clarify this for me, my kids are 5 years and 7 years and i was told by the maltese high commision in London that the children needed to attend the high commsion to obtain passport renewals some weeks ago. Thats a very expensive day out if you live 200 miles from London, so i had to opt for british passports - lets hope they arrive in time for my trip to Malta on the 26th July.

Did the high commision miss - inform me?

It would not suprise me

l fenech

Jun 28th 2010, 13:41

How much please?

l.zammit

Jun 28th 2010, 13:07

To Whom It May Concern: Is it possible to have the Driving Licence, old ID Card and Passport consolidated in the new biometric passport? In this way we avoid duplication of data and maybe we aslo save some Euros as there will be one document.

Alfred Demicoli

Jun 28th 2010, 12:53

Quote
data cannot be shared or accessed by anyone, not even the police, the officials said
Unquote

Yeah, right!

Anthony Cassar

Jun 28th 2010, 12:49

A facetious question arises from this article - Just what is the purpose of a database if "the data cannot be shared or accessed by anyone"? Which specific EU directive calls for passports to have fingerprint data, and is this mandatory or optional?

Charles Sammut

Jun 28th 2010, 11:46

"He said the requirement is part of an EU directive."

Is this what the sheeple voted for when they were hoodwinked into voting "Yes" or else join the habbaziz brigade? Welcome to the European Soviet Union.

"Dr Gatt stressed that the database of the fingerprints is very secure and the data cannot be shared or accessed by anyone, not even the police."

Probably as secure as the email accounts which were hacked en-masse not so long ago. No, Dr Gatt I do not have faith in what you state. If you really want biometric data on a passport, use retina scans. They are accepted and cannot be used to frame anyone.

Stephen Koludrovic

Jun 28th 2010, 11:44

Quite right too, there should be nothing wrong with having your fiingerprint on your official passport
.

A Vassallo

Jun 28th 2010, 11:37

How much does a new passport for a Maltese citizen cost? (My old one has expired over a year ago.) Thanks.