[ad_1]
The new draft of the Department of the Interior policy aims to capture detailed biometric data (unique physical traits) of each child born in South Africa and link this data to the parents’ identity numbers, which are printed on all identity documents. .
- Experts have warned that digital biometric records could be leaked.
- The home affairs department plans to record all biometric data of newborns.
- The system is designed to fight corruption.
Plans to photograph and fingerprint every baby born for a digital record could lead to data leaks and identity theft without strong safeguards, rights experts said Thursday.
The new draft of the Department of the Interior policy aims to capture detailed biometric data (unique physical traits) of each child born in South Africa and link this data with the parents’ identity numbers, which are printed on all identity documents .
The government hopes that the new registration system will prevent corrupt officials from selling birth certificates to foreigners to illegally secure South African citizenship and protect children who are otherwise at risk of being undocumented.
About one in 10 of the roughly 1 million babies born each year goes unregistered at birth, government data shows. Without birth certificates, they run the risk of being excluded from school and health care and denied citizenship.
Under the proposed policy, all children, including those whose parents are migrants or stateless, which means that no country recognizes them as citizens, will receive a digital number, although this does not translate into automatic citizenship.
“Governments need to have digital records of their population to provide services,” said Joseph Atick, CEO of ID4Africa, a charity that promotes digital identification, or online identity records, in Africa.
“[But] the threat to privacy is real. That is why we promote the development of privacy and data protection laws and frameworks before adopting digital identity, “Atick told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in emailed comments.
READ | Home Affairs launches a new automated biometric identification system
The Interior Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
South Africa passed the Personal Information Protection Act in 2013, which aims to protect private data held by government, businesses and individuals from security breaches, theft and misuse, but the key elements have not yet have been enacted.
The country has been repeatedly hit by cybercriminals.
The city of Johannesburg had to shut down its website and online services in 2019 after hackers breached its network and threatened to upload all of your private data online unless the government paid a ransom.
Abuse
Approximately 1 billion people around the world lack proof of identity, which is often vital to accessing welfare payments, opening businesses, obtaining mobile phone lines and voting, according to the World Bank, which supports efforts to implement digital IDs around the world.
Advanced biometric systems are already used in countries like India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, linking fingerprints and iris scans to a unique identity number.
India’s system, the world’s largest, has been criticized for excluding some 100 million vulnerable people, many of whom are homeless or transgender and have been denied essential services, according to a 2019 study by the Dalberg consulting firm.
“Digital identity systems are complex and there needs to be significant oversight … to ensure that any system that is put in place is not subject to abuse,” said Avani Singh, director of ALT Advisory, a data privacy law firm.
“As members of the public increasingly demand, and rightly so, an agency over their personal information, we must ensure that any digital identity system is robust, secure, trustworthy, legal and inclusive.
The draft identity management policy seeks to capture more biometric data, such as photos of eyes, hands, feet and ears, and possibly future DNA collection, to ensure that no one lives without “a legal record of existence” .
The policy is open for public comment until February 28, after which it will be drafted into a bill.
Murray Hunter, a local digital rights activist who wrote Boris the BabyBot, a children’s book on surveillance, was skeptical that biometrics could solve identity management problems.
“Can it really be that the only solution [to identity theft] “Is it not to root out corrupt officials, but to create massive databases of each child’s face, fingerprints and other biometric information?” He asked.
We know it was a long read and your time is precious. Did you know that now you can listen to articles? Subscribe to News24 to access this exciting feature and more.
