ID card chip - Why fingerprints are now also stored

Soon fingerprints will also be stored on the integrated chip in the ID card as a mandatory feature. The main reasons are the many advantages that the chip should bring to citizens. Find out what you need to know about the security and functionality of the chip in the Perso here.

New mandatory feature: two fingerprints on the chip in the ID card

In order to prevent counterfeiting of ID cards and to be able to identify the holder of the ID card - for example during border controls at the airport - it was decided after an EU agreement to introduce two fingerprints on ID cards as a mandatory feature in the future.

• According to the new requirements, identity cards must then have two fingerprints stored on the digital chip, be machine-readable, be issued in credit card format, contain a photo and be valid for five to ten years.
• The combination of photo and fingerprints is intended to enable the ID card holder to be clearly identified.
• However, reading the fingerprints is only permitted for the identification of certain stately authorities. These include: law enforcement agencies, customs administration, tax investigation offices and identity card, passport and registration authorities.
• The agreement must be formally confirmed in the coming weeks, then all newly issued ID cards must meet the new requirement two years later.
• Until now, the storage of fingerprints in ID cards in Germany was voluntary. This feature has been standard for passports since 2007.
• Identity cards that have already been issued are to remain valid for ten years unless they expire earlier.
• In order to strengthen data protection, measures are provided to prevent the integrated chips, which contain the card holder's data, from being hacked.
• "The mandatory storage of fingerprints on ID cards is a serious encroachment on the fundamental rights of up to 370 million Europeans, " said SPD MEP Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann. It makes sense to set common security standards for 86 different personal versions in the EU. According to the Social Democrats, the storage of fingerprints is "disproportionate and not necessary".

The biometric function of the chip in the identity card

The radio frequency identification chip, better known as an RFID chip, is located in the top right corner of the ID card.

• You can recognize or feel the small chip by the slight bump in the right corner of the German ID card.
• With the help of this RFID chip it is possible to read out and transmit data via radio.
• Your biometric passport photo is stored on the chip. This should ensure that the ID card is tamper-proof. Your first and last name, date of birth, place of residence and postcode are also noted on the RFID chip. If you have an artist or religious name, this will also be saved there.
• In order to read the RFID chip, the reader must be brought up to at least two centimeters from the ID card. The protection of sensitive data on the chip should be ensured by a six-digit PIN.

The advantages of the RFID chip

Among other things, one of the great advantages of the chip in the identity card is that it should make it easy to shop online. Furthermore, the chip should simplify the administrative procedures significantly and make it less time-consuming.

• In order to shop online with your ID, you need an appropriate RIFD chip reader. However, the devices are not cheap at around 30 euros.
• Your data is transmitted to the online shop and you no longer have to enter it manually. However, not all online shops necessarily participate in the process. In addition, you usually buy from the same online shops anyway and therefore have an account there. Everyone has to decide for themselves whether the chip on the ID card is really such an excellent innovative improvement.
• The same as for shopping on the Internet should also apply to official transactions. Provided that the authority has the appropriate readers ready for use, have the data read out there and no longer have to enter them manually in forms. This is intended to speed up administrative procedures. Of course, this requires that the passport's eID function is activated.

Note: New law regarding the chip in the ID card

So far, the citizens have apparently not been quite as enthusiastic about the supposed advantages of the new ID card, because only a few have enabled the chip. Although the authorities went out of their way to praise the chip in the highest tones, most Germans remained stubborn.

• According to the saying: If the mountain does not come to the Prophet, the Prophet must come to the mountain, our government has simply turned the tables. Until now, the passport holder had to explicitly consent to the activation of the RFDI chip, but now it is the other way round.
• Without much fuss, it was quietly decided in the background that the microchip on the identity card will in principle be active in the future. According to the law, however, every citizen should be provided with information material on this.
• Deactivating the chip yourself is not recommended as you will then be punished. To prevent someone from illegally reading the data from the chip, wrap it in aluminum foil. Looks a bit strange, but helps. Alternatively, you can purchase a protective cover for your ID card.
• With the law, the government also authorized secret services to access citizens' passport photos.

If you want to deactivate the online function in your ID card, you don't have to do much - just take your own initiative.