Re: Biometric ID Card

From: S Moonesamy <sm+mu_at_elandsys.com>
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2015 10:03:55 -0700

Hi Ish,
At 08:14 17-09-2015, Ish Sookun wrote:
>Below is an extract from an article [1] in defimedia.info.
>
> "Du côté du ministère de la
> Technologie, de l’Information et de la
> Communication, l’on affirme que la Declaration
> Form est toujours à l’étude et que les changements n’ont pas encore eu lieu."
>
>If I have well understood, even though the
>Ministry of Technology, Communication &
>Innovation is inviting people to apply for the
>Biometric ID Card, actually proper changes are
>yet to be brought. The "consent form" is not appropriate at the moment.
>
>In previous mails we have seen that the storage
>of photos, JPEG as some government officials
>call it, is against the Supreme Court
>injunction. Therefore, I have a question, is the
>ministry doing something "unethical"?

I'll comment about the "unethical" part
first. From the "Code of Ethics for Public
Officers" published by the Ministry of Civil
Service & Administrative Reforms in 2010:

   "It is the duty of Public Officers to give to the public any
    information required or advice and to provide reasonable
    assistance. Public Officers shall help the public to understand
    their rights and obligations."

It could be viewed as unethical if a public
officer of the ministry did not help you
understand your rights and obligations, e.g. is
the data collection voluntary or mandatory.

You also asked about consent. The ministry has
an obligation [1] to inform the person from which
it is collecting personal data from about whether
or not the supply of the data, e.g. fingerprints,
photo, is voluntary or mandatory. If it is
voluntary, it will have to be done with the consent of the person.

I am not sure what the Ministry of Technology,
Communication and Innovation meant by
"declaration form". Is the person being required
to make an official statement?

Regards,
S. Moonesamy

1. I did not list all the obligations as the
explanation might be too complicated then.
Received on Thu Sep 17 2015 - 17:04:42 PST