How are SINs (and their handy fake counterparts) supposed to work for Free Spirit characters ? It's not like they can have any unique individual biometrics, and I don't think it feasible for spirit formulas to be engraved in SINs.

According to Feral Cities (p.71) the only requirements for a SIN to count as an "official" SIN are that it contains: "at least name, birthdate, birthplace, gender, and metatype." (These are listed as the required elements for a country to be included in the Global SIN Registry, which is a requirement for being a member of the UN).

That being said, most SINs are going to associated with other biometric data in some database or another (most likely), but that's functionally no different than data (like your driving record, or credit history) being associated with your Social Security Number nowadays.

EDIT:

It should also be noted that Runner's Companion makes it clear that Free Spirits and AIs are both able to obtain legal SINs.

I think a legit SIN would be a detailed description of their astral form and signature. Frankly, I don't think it should be a problem most of the time, since it's very difficult for a free spirit to be legally recognized in the first place.

I think that the really hard part isn't getting legally recognized, but keeping yourself truly free in the process. According to Runner's Companion (p.70) Evo and Wuxing have both issued SINs to free spirits that they consider "corporate citizens". Outside of corporate sponsorship, the only nations listed as issuing SINs to free spirits are Amazonia, Yakut, Manchuria, Czech Republic, Pueblo, and Bolivia.

Back to the original issue at hand (or, the most salient part for runners, IMHO): a fake SIN is going to have problems for a free spirit specifically because they don't have the various biometric components to back up their fake SIN. People are going to wonder why they can't pull a print from the "elf" they brought in for questioning...and having a fake SIN that says that you are a free spirit doesn't give you a whole lot of anonymity.

I'd go for having Einsteins face as my thumbprint.

Well they might think the 'elf' had his finger prints removed through various means (Augmentation lists several) and is therefore a criminal of some sort anyway. How exactly does the law hold onto the spirit for it to get to this point though? Can't he just go astral and fly away? I mean before he even gets to the station, he would need to be knocked out somehow yet remain physical. I think the SIN thing is probably more important for things like high sec zones where you need to broadcast a SIN for security purposes and such or getting on a plane. It is most useful to a free spirit trying to blend in and therefore why not just get a fake SIN representing his/her/its materialized form and avoid getting into situations where biometrics become important. Best thing to do is get your friendly hacker or technomancer to massage the data going to the biometric reader anyway and just say it returns as listed on the fake SIN.
@Daylen
Which photo? The classic tongue sticking out one?

of course!

only thing better would be his face formed as a fourier transform on the char's eyes so the diffraction pattern from a laser in a retinal scan would yield his face.

Lol. You have too much free time.

It's all moot unless the spirit has the Realistic Form power anyway.

no I'm just working on a graduate degree in optics. so aforementioned topics are something I am forced to think about for many hours a week.

Well presuming the free spirit is complying with the police as he has nothing to hide (not everyone is a shadowrunner or a criminal!), then yes, there could be issues trying to pull prints and retina scans ect. Otherwise he could just fade away into the darkness.

Which, of course, means any really fancy fake SIN claims you're from one of those places so the lack of biometrics isn't a problem. Or hell, wouldn't surprise me if there's some sort of "fake biometrics" spell possible.

Pardon me for my ignorance, but
can a free spirit with SIN issued for example in Czech republic own a property in UCAS/CAS/Seattle?
I am thinking about new character for new campaing, and my character wants to have
a free spirit, owner of a club, as a contact.
And I am also from Czech republic in real life yay for free spirits getting their SIN here.

you guys make some fine firearms!

From what I remember each type of technological detector counts as a separate sense (correct me if I'm wrong, please). so theoretically Physical Mask should work to fake biometrics too, since it's physical and covers all senses. It just needs to beat the OR of the sensor. Something a bit more specialized, though, you could make a 'Spoof Lifesigns' spell, which would be single-sense. (maybe)

Spoof Metahuman Lifesigns Drain: F/2 - 4 (Physical +1, Caster Only -2, Sustained +0, Restricted Effect* -1, Realistic +0, Single-Sense -2)
*Can only simulate healthy metahuman biometric readings.

If biometrics covers more than one sense, multi-sense is required, so the drain code would change to -2. To be able to pretend to be other critters than metahuman, or to fake being injured, -1 (multi-sense) or -3 (single-sense). You could make it not Caster Only, but at that point, you might as well just use Physical Mask.

Interesting question - I can imagine there'll be some Supreme Court precedent about that though. The question would run like this:

- X is of race Q.
- X is a citizen of country Y.
- In country Z, citizens of Y are allowed to own property.
- In country Z, race Q cannot become citizens.

Question: does citizenship of Y trump the normal inability of X to exercise civil rights in Z?

I expect it will; there's a similar situation IRL. Not everyone is eligible to become US citizen, but foreigners can own property in the US, as long as they're citizens from countries which the US recognizes, at least to some degree.

That doesn't mean the local country sheriff will like it however; you might want to hire a good lawyer to pound sense into bigots from time to time.