Smart tech a better office block doorkeeper

We’ve all done it. Taken the name of anyone from Donald Duck to Donald Trump when signing visitors’ registers at the entrances to office complexes. And for good reason.

We have no idea what happens to those registers containing details — when we are honest — of our names, employers, phone numbers and even ID numbers. The purpose of the register is a mystery to most visitors, who see it as a nuisance and waste of time.

However, identity management of visitors to office environments is required by law.

The Occupational Health and Safety Act specifies that building management must know who is on the premises at any given moment.

It makes it possible, in case of a crisis, to account for everyone who has entered the building. But because of the sloppy and inconsistent approach of most facilities, the public has little respect for this law.

As a result, when many forward-thinking businesses introduce electronic systems — such as scanning driver’s licences and vehicle-registration discs — people regard it as a violation of their privacy rather than as the more reliable and secure form of compliance that such systems are intended to be.

The emphasis is on “intended”, as the key lies not in the technology itself, but in the back-end system that manages the visitor records. This nuance will be crucial once the new Protection of Personal Information Act is fully implemented.

“An objective of the act is to make sure all personal data collected is relevant to the purpose for which it is collected,” says Marius Coetzee, CEO of identity management specialists Ideco.

“I’m also a consumer, and I’m also concerned when I see how much information is collected.

“There are usually only three pieces of information that are needed, namely, who you are, what assets you bring with you and where they can contact you in the event of a disaster on the premises.

“It’s also useful to know when you entered and who you are coming to see.

“It has huge implications if a site doesn’t keep accurate visitor information and something happens on that site.

“If we understand the purpose of the book, people would treat it with more respect.”

Coetzee says he believes the fear of providing personal information in a paper-based visitor book is well-founded. “In the past, we found out visitor books were being sold after hours to people who made copies, as part of their research when planning identity fraud.

“The book is a major risk to the individual.”

Last month, Ideco launched a digital solution called Electronic Visitor Identity Management, which can be used both on specialised scanners and ordinary smartphones.

The key, again, is not in the technology, but in how the data is stored and how efficiently visitors are managed.

Identity can even be validated in advance, and the visitor uses a passcode to enter the premises.

Electronic Visitor Identity Management is a cloud-based system that not only ticks the right boxes for security and risk, but also automates compliance with the laws relevant to specific types of buildings.

Most important, it ensures that personal data can only be accessed by authorised personnel.

And that you need no longer call yourself Mickey Mouse.

‘In the past, we found out that visitor books were being sold after hours’

Goldstuck is the founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter @art2gee and on YouTube