Despite Privacy Concerns, Mexico Continues Scanning Youth Irises for ID Cards
Despite Privacy Concerns, Mexico Continues Scanning Youth Irises for ID Cards
August 31, 2012 | By EFF Intern
By Gabriela Manuli
For more than a year and a half, the Mexican government has been collecting an unprecedented amount of biometric data from minors ages 4 to 17 as part of a youth ID card program. The Personal Identity Card for minors, a document authorities say is intended to help streamline registration in schools and health facilities, comes embedded with digital records of iris images, fingerprints, a photograph, and a signature for each minor.
Documents obtained by EFF under Mexico’s Transparency and Access to Information Act show that as of this past May, nearly 4 million minors had been enrolled into registries associated with the new ID. Public records also revealed that more than 1.2 million ID cards had been issued in the states of Baja California, Baja California South, Colima, Chiapas, Distrito Federal, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Sinaloa, and Morelos. Of those who were issued cards, 1,345 had to go through the registration process again because the quality of their biometric data was inadequate for identification.
The ID card project is part of the integration of Mexico’s National Population Register (RENAPO), which is intended to provide a unique identity system to conclusively prove identities of all Mexican citizens. Under the program, the Ministry of the Interior will issue Citizen Identity Cards and Personal Identity Cards containing biometric information, first to youth, and later extending to Mexico’s entire adult population.
Since July of 2009, when President Felipe Calderón officially announced the creation of RENAPO, numerous observers have sounded the alarm that the endeavor violates individuals' privacy rights. Despite serious concerns raised by a governmental accountability agency and a special commission tasked with studying the program, in January of 2011 Mexico nevertheless became the first country in the world to use iris scans as a component of ID cards.
More:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/08/despite-privacy-concerns-mexico-continues-scanning-youth-irises-id-cards
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