[Xaccers]

Thats the thing, other countries have implimented ID cards and they've worked (even with fingerprint data), they don't get goons asking for people's papers just for the hell of it, it's when the person is involved in an incident (also very useful if someone's involved in an accident or found dead!)
As for the fear that having your fingerprints on file means the goverment can track you, well I think people have been watching too much CSI!
If a fingerprint is lifted, then certain points and charactoristics are matched, it's not like they move one image over another and go "bingo, perfect match"
If a search was done on a lifted print it would probably come up with thousands of matches, so finding the identity without already having a suspect is nigh impossible.
Personally I feel that a conviction on fingerprint evidence alone should not be allowed, as previous events in scotland showed when a WPC's fingerprints were technically found at a crime scene she'd never been to (enough points matched even though it wasn't her print)
Fingerprints may be unique, the results from analysing them aren't!