In 2018, the Belgian State decided to oblige all citizens from the age of 12, to give their fingerprints to the Government in order to make eID cards . This bill was critized broadly because of violation of the European Treaty of Human Rights. Especially the privacy rights are under attack. SQ was consulted by activist citizens who decided to start litigation before the Constitutional Court. The plaintiffs are represented by SQ founding partner Geert G.R. Lenssens. The litigation started early 2019 and the court decided on 14 th of January that the law was compliant with the constitution, but the court also followed plaintiffs and contrary to the position of the government the court limited the interpretation and application of the law e.g. the police only can ‘read’ the fingerprints and compare them with the fingerprints of the person, but the can never ‘copy’ these fingerprints en neither can they put these fingerprints in their database. Furthermore the court decided that the short time database of max. 3 months needed for the production of the eID is subject to the GDPR. SQ believes that the privacy of the citizens will be better protected through this new limits in application and interpretation.
