Actually, it is. From the video: "The government is moving to storing them in WSQ format, which is literally just an image." More details on WSQ format: http:/

Actually, it is. From the video: "The government is moving to storing them in WSQ format, which is literally just an image." More details on WSQ format: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wavelet_Scalar_Quantization http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wavelet_Scalar_Quantization Even if you just store minutiae points (lists of X,Y coordinates of "interesting" points in the image like ends, bifurcations, etc), recent research shows how to generate a plausible fingerprint image that has those same minutiae. Here's one work: http://www.cse.msu.edu/biometrics/Publications/Fingerprint/FengJain_FMModel_ICB09.pdf http://www.cse.msu.edu/biometrics/Publications/Fingerprint/F... Take a look at the pretty figures. This was done four years ago; it's only gotten better since then.