Why shouldn’t the government collect biometric data unless absolutely necessary? Things like this can happen to it:

The stolen database contained the name, date of birth, national identification number, and family members of 9 million Israelis, living and dead. More alarmingly, the database contained information on the birth parents of hundreds of thousands of adopted Israelis—including children—and detailed health information on individual citizens.

It’s a good, short write-up from Fast Company. Read the whole thing and pass it along.