RE: 2015 SCJ 177

From: S Moonesamy <sm+mu_at_elandsys.com>
Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2015 01:13:15 -0700

Hi Shelly,
At 11:02 06-06-2015, Shelly Hermia Bhujun wrote:
>1.How can we be sure that the Biometric database will be destroyed?

My guess is that the government agency managing
that database could provide information about the
procedure which will be used for the destruction of the information.

>2.There are some companies in Mauritius which
>uses Fingerprint and Facial recognition. Is that Legal?

It can be a problem if that is done without strong justification.

>If the person refuse to provide their biometric
>data, there job application will be rejected.
>So, is it really the person's fault to agree to
>such conditions applied by the company? I don't
>think it'll be such an easy choice, especially
>if the person has a family. This approach will
>influence not only one person but a whole group
>and this is the culture that some companies
>might adopt because in would be benefit them.
>What is the data protection commissioner doing about it?

The person agreed. That could be disputed if the
person can show that he or she was coerced into
entering into the agreement. It would be a
problem if several persons agreed out of
fear. Another possibility is that it was done
out of ignorance. There is a word in french
which has the following meaning: "qui croit trop
facilement et trop naïvement des choses même
invraisemblables". The person who agreed could
be asked about his/her educational background and
whether that word is one of his/her
characteristics. If the person is incapable to
decide for himself/herself there would have to be
some authority to protect the person from taking
decisions which may have a negative impact on him/her.

>3.If not, is there anybody to verify that these
>companies are following the data protection act?
>I know that some companies have audits.

There could be an verification to determine
whether the company is in compliance with the
Data Protection Act if there is a complaint about
that. There can also be information auditing
requirements which the company follows.

>4.Normally, there are inspection in companies to
>verify whether they are in compliance with the
>law, if they did there job, why are these
>companies still using these biometric data?

There was the following statement from an official of the Labour Office:

   "L’Employment Rights Act ne prévoit rien à ce
sujet. Du coup nous ne savons pas quoi
    conseiller aux personnes qui cherchent des
éclaircissements sur les empreintes
    digitales prélevées sur le lieu de travail."

An inspection would be about compliance with a
specific law instead of all the laws.

Regards,
S. Moonesamy
Received on Sun Jun 07 2015 - 08:13:50 PST