Quote:
Originally Posted by MMM
A fingerprint or retina is not DNA. I am not aware of a government program to ID people by DNA, but if that exists, let me know.
How is "divulging" your fingerprint giving up your rights? If you aren't doing anything illegal, then what is there to be upset about? Your retina or fingerprint has no inherent value, so if sharing it ensures there are no, for example, terrorists on the plane I am about to fly it, then they have all the retina scans and fingerprints they want.
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I don't live in fear of terrorist attacks though, and if someone wants to blow up a plane then it will be easy for a terrorist group to find someone not on the government terrorist database - the difficult part is getting a bomb onboard. Having your retina / fingerprint will make no difference surely.
Apart from on the occasion of immigration / emmigration there is no reason to take that information and even then it should be destroyed upon returning to your home country. I understand its important for government to be able to count people entering and leaving the country and to ensure that those people who enter leave when they are supposed to but in 99% (perhaps 100%) of situations it will be of no benefit to me or anyone else having my fingerprint or retina. I am still just as likely to be a victim of crime whether everyone has their fingerprint / retina / DNA on a database / ID card or not.
I should add that I am not vehrmently opposed to having that information in an alien card when I visit Japan but I am opposed to the rolling out of such forms of data gathering when a government applies it to its whole population.