Hi,
I believe there are two ways of looking at things. Academically and
Practically.
Mauritius is full of data breaches (yes as Mr Ish Sookun once pointed
out... as well as, if Ish remembers, of how i also sent screenshots of
how I was viewing peoples personal details on gov.mu).
On an academic level I may agree with many of the said statements. Yes
we have rights to privacy etc, no we shouldn't give biometric data
etc...etc etc.
However when I look at Mauritius, of how far behind the country is
vis-a-vis the developed world, I can't help but think how education, the
health system, legal system, general bureaucracy etc could really
benefit from having our data recorded.
We have a lot of catching up to do if we want this nation to be
intelligent, prosperous and a raised standard of living throughout our
country. Using Information tech with such data can have patients bodily
functions monitored from their own homes, education could be vastly
improved, without chance of plagiarism, monitoring students progress on
a daily basis throughout their 9 years of schooling, thus producing a
vastly superior education system (see Khan Academy as a broad example).
Voting would be accurate (and not people in Rose Belle stealing whole
ballot boxes, people voting twice etc), the whole country would become
efficient through data.
So let's look at our lives as it is. If you're stopped for a crime and
you're innocent, chances are technology would have saved you rather than
having human error/greed/corruption, condemn you. If you're ill, chances
are you'll die from human error than being tracked by technology. If
you're at school, chances are technology will turn you into a
semi-genius rather than human teachers, with degrees acquired by copying
fellow students, thus making your children even more stupid in the long run.
All our basic needs, education, legal, health, jobs, etc, will all
benefit from Data acquisition, starting from our personal data.
And another thing. We have no problem revealing our deepest secrets to
Zuckerbergs' "Graph API" (re: Facebook), mapping the whole of humanity,
segmenting all personal data acquired for systematic target marketing,
influencing our behaviour (as zuckerberg once tried to do as part of a
secret experiment) etc. We have no problem giving banks all our personal
details, or hospitals all our medical information. Yet all this
information is kept in paper files or easily accessible systems.
My point, at the end of this is, are we giving too much importance to
the, so-called, "privacy" we THINK we currently "enjoy"? ... or has our
privacy already been compromised 20 years ago?
Dhiruj
On 05/06/2015 15:20, S Moonesamy wrote:
> 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 - 19:26:53 PST