Home affairs minister Liesbeth Spies has been urged to ensure the US authorities do not have access to biometric details contained in Dutch passports and to raise the issue at a European level.

Dutch passports are produced by Haarlem-based company Morpho, which is part of the American Safran group. D66 parliamentarian Gerard Schouw believes this means the US authorities could access the Dutch fingerprint and facial scans.
‘At the same time, biometric information is not infallible and identity fraud is possible,’ Schow says in Thursday’s Volkskrant. ‘The cabinet is not protecting Dutch citizens’ privacy sufficiently.’
Spies said in a briefing to MPs she cannot rule out the US authorities accessing Morpho’s databank but said requests would have to be tested in the US legal system, taking European and Dutch rules into account.
Nevertheless, Spies said she is in talks with Morpho to discuss how the databanks can be sealed off from foreign access, news agency ANP reported.