Unbelievable – she does not have a fingerprint, so she cannot get an ID!

From the beginning of August, Hungary only makes fingerprint-based IDs. Authorities digitalise and upload it into a central register. In time, everybody will have such an ID as the old ones expire. However, Erzsébet F. Szabó cannot provide a fingerprint, so she can only receive a temporary ID. Read her unbelievable story below.

According to blikk.hu, Mrs Szabó should have made a new ID last year, but there was a delay because of the coronavirus epidemic. “I wanted to get it done. But I could not receive my new ID because I could not provide a fingerprint in the office. They sent me from one window to the other, but

the machine showed I do not have a fingerprint“

– she complained to the Hungarian tabloid.

She added that, with the help of some ink, she could do it at home. But that is not good enough for the computer. Therefore, she received a temporary ID, which she has to renew each year – ma.hu said. 

The authorities sent her to a dermatologist. He can issue her an official document certifying she does not have a fingerprint. She is very annoyed because that means she has to go back each year to, for example, the bank, the cable provider, and a lot of other service providers to renew her contracts with her new IDs. Dermatologist Erzsébet Szokolay said that

“losing” fingerprints is not uncommon in the case of seniors.

The reasons can be the drying out of the skin, some health problems or genetics.

Police have been using fingerprints for years. When somebody is interrogated as a suspect, they not only take a photo of them but scan their fingerprints. Thus, they can be found easily in the register afterwards. From August on, everybody will receive a fingerprint-based ID. Therefore, people can be identified as soon as their fingerprints are found at a crime scene. An expert even added that it might happen at some point that our fingerprints would be our passports. In the case of smartphones, they already substitute PIN codes.

This is how EU regulation will affect Hungarian ID cards from 2021

Source: ma.hu, blikk.hu