Hello,
At 22:42 04-06-2015, Dhiruj Rambaran wrote:
>In European countries biometic information is kept. To hold a
>swedish passport (as one example) they take a retina scan.
The following is from a presentation by Mrs Drudeisha Madhub, Data
Protection Commissioner. In the case of Leander v Sweden 1987:
"The ECtHR found that storing and release by security police of information
about applicant's private life was an interference with his right
to private
life of subject access is one of the main pillars of data protection"
In the case of Z v Finland 1997:
"The ECtHR found that there had been interference with the wife's right to
private life. In considering whether it was proportionate, it took into
account that data protection was of fundamental importance to the right to
private life. The need to protect confidentiality was of particular
importance where HIV was involved. Interference could be justified only by
an overriding requirement in the public interest."
In the case of S.and Marper v UK 2008:
"The ECtHR found that retaining all three categories of information was an
interference with the right to private life. There was a risk of
stigmatisation in treating the information of convicted and unconvicted
people in the same way. This could be especially harmful in the case of
minors. The retention of the data did not strike a fair balance between
public and private interests."
>I believe the issues with the gathering and storing of biometric
>data is not really a question of privacy (in my opinion) but a
>question of which country (their levels of corruption, adherance to
>human rights etc) wants to implement this? Also it's a question of
>'where' this data is kept, how it's kept and who has direct access to this.
The law in Mauritius about privacy is the Data Protection Act. The
Council of Europe commented about the Act in terms of extending its
scope: "it may be taken into consideration that 'Privacy' is
certainly the basic right to be protected where personal data are in
the hands of others or where electronic means are used to process such data".
I usually avoid getting into discussions about whether the country
wanting to implement this has, for example, corruption issues, human
rights issues, etc. as, in my opinion, it is unrelated to privacy and
technology. The questions you asked are the part of the ones which
are asked when privacy and technology are discussed.
>I am absolutely for the collection of biometric data. I think it's a
>huge crime deterrent/detector and, especially in a country like
>Mauritius, it would be key and instrumental for fantastic
>e-government/education/public transport/ health services etc. The
>sky is really the limit when building such data solutions for the
>entire country, making everything easier for everyone.
The problem is that the sky is the limit when it comes to privacy and
technology. Is it okay to implement a database of biometric data
containing data about everyone in Mauritius as it is believed that it
would be a huge crime deterrent/detector? That is currently doable
as a lot of the technology is available? There was a data breach [1]
outside Mauritius:
"The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) recently became aware of a
cybersecurity incident affecting its systems and data that may have
compromised the personal information of current and former
Federal employees."
I could not find any disclosure of a data breach in
Mauritius. However, there has been some cases of a data breach, e.g.
one involving an Internet Service Provider. Mr Sookun shared some
observations, e.g.
http://hacklog.in/e-government-portal-sharepoint-exposed/ According
to a decision of the Data Protection Commissioner:
"The reliance on the accuracy of fingerprinting can make possible mistakes
harder to rectify, leading to far reaching consequences for individuals."
What would happen if a biometric database is breached? Would it be
possible to prevent the data in there from being used for criminal
activities? How would I prove that I was not the person using the
service which relies on the biometric data if I did not use it?
Regards,
S. Moonesamy
1.
http://www.opm.gov/news/latest-news/announcements/
Received on Fri Jun 05 2015 - 11:21:29 PST