The Taliban has reportedly taken control of the biometric data of Afghan citizens. It is feared that those who fight the Taliban will be easier to track down through the biometric data.
"The Taliban have or will soon have large amounts of biometric data," Brian Dooley of Human Rights First said on a BBC podcast.
In recent years, the US army and the Government of Afghanistan have indeed collected biometric data of Afghan citizens for various purposes. The Afghan government uses it, among other things, for verification of election votes, while the US military uses it for verification of local contractors and employees or identification of bombers.
The Intercept said a military source said the Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment (HIIDE) biometric device was in the hands of the Taliban. The same thing was conveyed by Afghan officials to NewScientist, that the biometric device had been taken by the Taliban.
Meanwhile, Reuters also reported testimony from Kabul residents who said that the Taliban had carried out inspections of residents' homes using biometric devices. Even so, military biometric machine researcher and journalist, Annie Jacobsen said biometric data collected by US troops is not stored in Afghanistan but in the US Department of Defense.
However, there is more biometric data collected by the Afghan government. The Afghanistan National Information and Statistics Authority has 6 million e-Tazkira biometric ID cards data from Afghan citizens.
This data includes fingerprints, eye scans and photos. Biometric data including facial recognition was also used for the 2019 elections in Afghanistan.
Even the Afghan government has plans to collect biometric data of students in madrasas. It is this biometric data that the Taliban fear is used to identify those who oppose them, according to the BBC.