WASHINGTON
- May 23, 2008 - Fingerprints are considered to be among the most personal of
information, and fingerprint databases created and proposed in the name of
national security have generated much debate. Recently,
“Server in the
Sky” - a proposed international database of the fingerprints of suspected
criminals and terrorists to be shared among the U.S., UK and Canada - has ignited
a
firestorm of controversy,
as have cavalier comments made by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff
that fingerprints aren’t “
personal
data.”