No. Your fingerprints are not in any government database from birth. There is no federal or state law that requires newborn fingerprinting, hospitals do not do it as part of standard delivery, and no biometric system quietly enrolls infants. Fingerprints enter a government database only when a specific event puts them there, such as an arrest, a background check for a job or license, an immigration application, military enlistment, or voluntary sign-up for a traveler program. The FBI’s main biometric repository holds around 173 million individual fingerprint records, and every one of them got there through a concrete triggering event.
Why People Think Newborns Are Fingerprinted
The confusion usually traces back to hospital footprints. Many hospitals press a newborn’s feet onto an ink card, or use an electronic scanner, shortly after delivery. Those impressions help match infants to mothers during the hospital stay and often go home with parents as a keepsake. They are footprints, not fingerprints, and they are not uploaded to any law enforcement or government biometric system. They stay in the hospital’s medical records or in a family baby book.
Fingerprints themselves do form before birth. Ridge patterns are set by roughly the 20th week of gestation and stay unchanged for life unless the skin is badly damaged. But having fingerprints and having them in a database are two different things. A newborn has fully formed prints and zero presence in any identification system.
When Fingerprints Actually Get Collected
Prints enter a government system through a handful of specific processes. Some are involuntary, some are a condition of a job or benefit, and some are entirely voluntary.
Arrest and Booking
The most common involuntary collection happens at booking after an arrest. Police take prints, photographs, and identifying information as standard processing. Federal law authorizes the Attorney General to collect, classify, preserve, and exchange identification records, which is the legal foundation for the FBI’s fingerprint operations.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 534 – Acquisition, Preservation, and Exchange of Identification Records and Information Those prints go to state and federal repositories, where they can remain permanently unless a court orders expungement.
Employment and Professional Licensing
Many jobs require fingerprint-based background checks before you start. Government roles, teaching, healthcare, financial services, and any position needing a security clearance typically require it. Professional licensing in medicine, law, and real estate often does too. Your prints get sent to the FBI for a criminal history check, and in many cases the FBI keeps them on file. Federal rules require employers to apply these checks uniformly regardless of race, national origin, sex, religion, disability, or age.2U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Background Checks: What Employers Need to Know
Immigration and Naturalization
Applying for a visa, green card, or U.S. citizenship means giving the government your prints. USCIS has broad authority to require biometrics from anyone seeking an immigration benefit.3U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual – Purpose and Background For naturalization, fingerprint collection is required regardless of age, and applicants are scheduled for a biometrics appointment at a local Application Support Center.4U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual – Background and Security Checks The prints are checked against FBI and DHS databases.
Military Enlistment
Fingerprinting is a standard step at Military Entrance Processing Stations. Recruits are fingerprinted after selecting a career field and before completing enrollment.5U.S. Army. Military Entrance Processing Stations (MEPS) Those prints feed both military and FBI systems.
Voluntary Traveler Programs
TSA PreCheck, Global Entry, and other Trusted Traveler Programs collect fingerprints during enrollment. PreCheck takes your prints and photograph at a brief in-person appointment.6Transportation Security Administration. TSA PreCheck Signing up for these convenience programs means your biometrics are now stored in federal systems, which many enrollees do not realize.
Where the Prints Live
Collected prints go into one or more federal biometric repositories. The FBI runs the Next Generation Identification system, described as the world’s largest electronic repository of biometric and criminal history information.7Federal Bureau of Investigation. Next Generation Identification State and local agencies keep their own databases and most share with the FBI. The Department of Homeland Security runs a separate biometric repository, currently the Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT), which links records across visa applications, border crossings, and immigration status changes.8Department of Homeland Security. Office of Biometric Identity Management
How to Check If Your Prints Are on File
You can ask the FBI directly. The Identity History Summary Check returns any criminal history information tied to your fingerprints. The fee is $18, with waivers available for those who cannot pay.9Federal Bureau of Investigation. Identity History Summary Checks Frequently Asked Questions
Submit the request electronically and then visit a participating U.S. Post Office to have your prints captured digitally, or mail in a completed fingerprint card. You can also go through an FBI-approved Channeler, a private company authorized to handle the request. The FBI matches on biometrics, not names, so a current set of prints is required. If nothing is on file, the check comes back with no record.9Federal Bureau of Investigation. Identity History Summary Checks Frequently Asked Questions
Getting Fingerprints Removed
Removal is possible but rarely straightforward. For nonfederal arrest records, you go through the State Identification Bureau in the state where the offense happened, because expungement rules vary by jurisdiction. For federal arrest data, the FBI will remove records only at the request of the original submitting agency or on receipt of a federal court order specifically directing expungement.9Federal Bureau of Investigation. Identity History Summary Checks Frequently Asked Questions
You generally cannot ask the FBI directly to delete your prints. The request has to come from the submitting agency or a court. If a state conviction has been expunged but the FBI’s copy has not been updated, you can raise the discrepancy through the state bureau. Civil fingerprints submitted for employment or licensing follow separate retention rules and are often kept indefinitely.
What Doesn’t Count
Two things that look like fingerprint collection are worth ruling out.
Unlocking your phone with your fingerprint does not put your prints in any government database. Smartphones store fingerprint data locally on a dedicated security chip, and the phone converts each scan into a mathematical template rather than saving the image itself. That template stays on the device and is not sent to Apple, Google, or any agency.
Voluntary child ID kits do not put a child’s prints in a database either. The National Child Identification Program, which the FBI supports, distributes kits that parents keep at home; the fingerprints and other information in these kits are not held by the FBI. Parents give the information to law enforcement only in an emergency, and even then the FBI does not retain it permanently without the parent’s permission.10Federal Bureau of Investigation. How to Protect Your Kids with ID Kits