Hello SM,
On 6/5/15 3:20 PM, S Moonesamy wrote:
>
> 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".
>
Indeed, this is something which Mauritius needs to improve on. Currently
the topic of privacy & personal data is not very well understood by the
masses.
> 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 understand your point. I believe a more correct metric to measure the
readiness of a country deploying such technology would be its success
rate in previous technological projects.
>
> 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:
>
Can the technology used to detect a crime, also be used to commit a crime?
>
> 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:
>
Data breaches appear to be handled with utmost secrecy in the local
context. Few people would dare to discuss them on a public platform. The
last few weeks we have been discussing about open data & freedom of
information. Till now how many people in Mauritius have expressed an
interest in cyber incidents & data breaches with the relevant agencies.
>
> 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?
>
One of the factors that discourages me from giving my fingerprints is
the lack/reluctance of guarantee that no government (or a third-party)
would use the data without my consent.
Regards,
--
​Ish Sookun
- Geek by birth, Linux by choice.
- I blog at HACKLOG.in.
https://twitter.com/IshSookun ^^ Do you tweet?
Received on Fri Jun 05 2015 - 12:13:26 PST