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Police eager to access passport fingerprints

Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen has told the Finnish News Agency STT that she is prepared to give police access to the passport fingerprint database in criminal investigations. Legal experts are, however, not warming to the idea.

Asiakkaan sormenjälki tallennetaan passia hakiessa.
Image: YLE

The matter is problematic and touches on issues related to EU laws, international norms and human rights, according to Johannes Koskinen, chair of Parliament’s Constitutional Law Committee. He says he wants a thorough study into the matter before any decisions are made on who may access fingerprints.

“To what extent can information be used that was collected for another purpose?” asks Koskinen.

Fingerprints have been integrated into Finnish passports as biometric identifiers since 2009.

A working group looking into fingerprint use will present its report to Räsänen in November.

Sources: YLE

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