The Chișinău government had on its 21 October agenda, item 12, a draft decision on the concept of the “Facial Image Registry” information system and the rules for keeping it. Interior minister Daniella Misail-Nichitin presented the file. Radio Moldova writes that the registry “will be created”. This is a framework decision, not a system already running and not a database of every resident’s photographs.

The registry is meant to compare automatically photographs from authorised registers with images of people whose identity is not confirmed, for suspects, missing people or the dead, in cases set by law. Results must be checked by qualified staff. The automatic comparison is a technical step, not the last word.

The Interior Ministry will coordinate the registry. Technical administration: the ministry’s Information Technology Service and the Information Technology and Cyber Security Service. Data providers, in Radio Moldova’s list: the Police, Border Police, General Inspectorate for Migration, Public Services Agency, the Intelligence and Security Service, the National Penitentiary Administration and the National Anti-Corruption Centre. A list of institutions, not a switch-on today.

Access is meant only for authorised people with duties in investigation, identification or police cooperation. The minister said comparison results will have to be checked, to avoid wrong identifications and misuse. The document, according to Radio Moldova, forbids general searches without a concrete case and discriminatory profiling.

For cross-border exchange, data sent at the first step will not include names or other details that immediately identify a person. Extra information only after a confirmed match. Photographs of missing and deceased people may sit in the national component, not in the automated exchange set. That is the written rule, not a flow already open.

The ministry will build the registry from its yearly budget and other legal sources. IPN described the same project in September, still being promoted, and noted there is no automatic transfer of every citizen’s photographs. Until a go-live date, the closed fact is the government decision: a framework for a registry, not an operational system.

Image: Diego Delso, Government House, Chisinau, 3 November 2023, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; the 2023 building, not a photograph of a facial registry.

Sources consulted: A facial image registry will be created in Moldova - Radio Moldova; Government sitting of 21 October 2026 - Government of the Republic of Moldova.