Businesses to ‘fingerprint' customers for ID cards

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High street shops, banks and post offices will be invited to collect biometric data such as fingerprints for the government's forthcoming ID card scheme, according to reports.

The Home Office will look for companies to bid for the contract to run ‘enrolment booths’ around the country where people will be biometrically tested, with speculation that the Royal Mail might take part and use its Post Office network for enrolment.

The Daily Mail newspaper said that applicants will have all eight fingers and both thumbs printed and their face scanned, with the data passed on to the Identity and Passport Service for inclusion on the National Identity Register.

Campaigners and the opposition have constantly raised doubts that both the public and private sector had the ability to be trusted with personal information.

Data losses have constantly been in the news, with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) recently revealing that 277 data breaches had been reported since the HMRC breach.

Tory shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve was reported to have said: “The Home Secretary’s determination to press ahead with a project that will put the personal data of every citizen in this country at risk is reckless in the extreme.”

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