The European Commission will propose tomorrow that all foreign travelers entering and leaving Europe, including U.S. citizens, should be fingerprinted. If approved by the European Parliament, the measure would mean that precisely identifying information on tens of millions of citizens will be added in coming years to databases that could be shared by friendly governments around the world.
The United States already requires that foreigners be fingerprinted and photographed before they enter the country. So does Japan. Now top European security officials want to follow suit, with travelers being fingerprinted and some also having their facial images stored in a Europe-wide database, according to a copy of the proposal obtained by The Washington Post.
I've managed to go 38 years of my life without being fingerprinted with one simple method—by not committing felonies. The thought of being treated like a criminal to simply enter another country really rubs me the wrong way.
That said, I wasn't aware of the fact that we're insisting travelers into this country get fingerprinted and I'm sorry to hear it. Turnabout's fair play, I guess. Still, it strikes me as a sad day. And another baby step forward to a Phillip K. Dick world.
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