As of: March 2, 2024, 6:03 a.m
By: Lennart Schwenck
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In the future, stricter rules will apply to passport photos in Germany.
The regulations are intended to serve as protection.
This is intended to make it more difficult for criminals to steal identities.
Berlin - And suddenly a stranger has his own name: Fraudsters, especially on the Internet, aim to steal people's identities.
If those affected do not react quickly, this can have far-reaching consequences for them.
The federal government wants to take action against this in the future: From May 1, 2025, stricter rules will apply for passport photos in newly issued identity cards, as can be seen from a new federal government regulation.
Identity card with fingerprint last updated in 2010
The current ID cards, introduced in 2010, already have various anti-counterfeit features such as watermarks, reflections of the federal eagle and holographic portraits.
A new regulation is now being introduced for the latter.
The regulations for passport photos are to become stricter in the future - for the citizens' own protection.
(Symbolic photo) © Thomas Trutschel/Imago
The main reason for these stricter regulations is protection against identity theft through the so-called “morphing” technique, which the Federal Ministry of Education and Research has been warning about for a long time.
Criminals can bypass facial recognition systems by combining two faces into one, creating fake passports that can trick automated border controls.
Nasty AI tricks are also circulating on the Internet in other ways - and often cost victims dearly.
New ID card 2025: More security and authenticity
To counteract this risk, from May 1, 2025, passport photos will only be created digitally and transmitted directly to the responsible authorities via a secure connection.
This process is described in detail in the Technical Guideline TR-03170, which also includes encrypting the photos and checking them for biometric suitability.
Illegal morphing: How criminals outsmart photo ID checks
Morphing refers to the computer-aided merging of images of several people.
In facial recognition, criminals can use this technique to commit identity theft by connecting two faces so that the resulting image has similarities to both people.
To combat such attacks, the ANANAS project is conducting research using artificial intelligence methods.
The aim is to detect anomalies in images that occur during the morphing process, thereby improving the security of facial recognition systems.
Source:
Federal Ministry of Education and Research
Citizens then have the choice of having their passport photo taken either by the authorities or by authorized service providers.
In the residents' offices it is usually possible to take the photo directly at the local authority for a fee of around six euros.
By only creating passport photos digitally and transmitting them via secure channels, the integrity of the identification document is to be guaranteed.
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Stark consequences: Victims of identity theft can experience “trauma”.
Victims usually only realize that their identity has been stolen when it is too late, as the consumer advice center writes.
Once criminals have acquired this data, they often misuse the data for unauthorized subscriptions or contracts as well as fake purchases on the Internet.
Defending yourself against the resulting demands for payment from providers can take a lot of time and effort - and in the worst case, cost money.
The Munich lawyer Marc Maisch speaks to the
Tagesschau
about a “trauma” that can occur in victims.
Even opening accounts abroad is possible with this scam.
Evi Haberberger, head of the cyber crime department at the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office, warns the
Tagesschau
: “If things go stupidly, then the police will be at your door” – the accusation: money laundering.
“And then it is actually very difficult to actually prove to yourself that it is not you, that you did not open this account.” An eye doctor chain also has to face allegations of fraud.
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