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1title: Flood of lawsuits against biometric passports
2date: 2008-02-05 00:00:00
3updated: 2009-04-18 19:07:49
4author: erdgeist
5tags: update
6
7A constitutional complaint against the inclusion of biometric characteristics in passports has been lodged following a lawsuit filed by lawyer Michael Schwarz. "Finally a debate long overdue in society flanked by legal steps against the biometric registration of the population is underway", said Chaos Computer Club (CCC) spokesman Dirk Engling.
8
9<!-- TEASER_END -->
10
11On January 28, 2008 the well-known German author Juli Zeh filed a
12complaint about the "criminal records department measures". She
13justifies her charge that the biometric measures violate the
14constitution \[1\] by bypassing the German Parliament with EU regulation
15as well as other constitutional issues. Legislative initiatives “for
16which there will probably be no parliamentary majority, are being raised
17at European level”, she writes. This so-called European by-path was
18spurred on significantly by the former German Minister of the Interior,
19Otto Schily.
20
21Zeh sees Schily's actions as driven by his private financial commitments
22and notes with alarm the fact that “he became a member of the
23supervisory board of Byometric Systems AG after leaving office” raising
24the specter of conflicts of interest during his period in office. Schily
25also was a supervisory board member and shareholder in biometrics
26manufacturer SAFE ID solutions AG, as well as a legal consultant to
27Siemens AG. \[2\] Schily has so far refused to disclose all of his
28earnings as a member of the German Bundestag.
29
30The CCC vehemently protested against biometric passports, previously
31making the statement that this serious conflict of political and
32financial interests requires an independent oversight. \[3\] Dirk
33Engling comments: “There is a question about the extent to which the
34rushed introduction of biometric identification documents is primarily
35serving the private financial interests of individual public officials.
36The use of biometrics, which is widely regarded as insecure, was
37obviously pushed through without regard to the interests of citizens and
38at enormous costs.”
39
40The CCC supports the actions undertaken by Mr Schwarz and believes it to
41be the duty of all affected citizens to contact their elected
42representatives about having the presumption of their innocence restored
43when interacting with the registration office. Mr Schwarz has published
44his statement of claim under \[4\].
45
46### Links (German)
47
48- \[1\] [Verfassungsbeschwerde von Juli
49 Zeh](/epass/Verfassungsbeschwerde28012008.pdf/)
50- \[2\] [Heidi Klein, Tillmann Höntzsch "Fliegende Wechsel - die
51 Drehtür
52 kreist"](http://www.lobbycontrol.de/download/drehtuer-studie.pdf)
53- \[3\] [Pressemeldung des CCC vom 20. Juni
54 2007](/updates/2007/biometrie-unsinn-deluxe)
55- \[4\] [Klage des Rechtsanwaltes Michael
56 Schwarz](/epass/klage-fingerabdruecke.pdf)
57- \[5\] [Vortrag auf dem 24c3 "Meine Finger gehören mir - Die nächste
58 Stufe der biometrischen
59 Vollerfassung"](http://dewy.fem.tu-ilmenau.de/CCC/24C3/mp4/24c3-2346-de-meine_finger_gehoeren_mir-COMPATIBLE.mp4)