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