Electronic NICs: Individual consent required to share personal data
Under the new electronic National Identity Cards (eNIC) programme, individuals will be asked to give their consent for the Department of Registration of Persons to share their personal information with other state institutions, a senior official said.
“The Customs Department, Land Registry, Immigration Department, Department of Motor Traffic, Inland Revenue Department and Banks will be entering into agreements with our departments to share the details of persons only with the consent letter of the concerned individual,” Commissioner-General R.M.S. Sarath Kumara told the Sunday Times.
He said the Department of Registration of Persons would sign a memorandum of understanding with other government agencies to share the personal details of an individual following a consent letter obtained from him or her.
he said details including date of birth, place of birth, gender, address, approved photograph, family details along with bio-metric details including finger prints would be registered in the directory.
However, only restricted access will be given depending on the state institution’s requirement.
The Commissioner said the department had set up an electronic database called “National Register of Persons” to store bio-metric details of persons with their family tree.
“Limited access will be given to other agencies after we have signed agreements with them. There are also checks and balances in place at the department to monitor who is accessing the data and the purpose. The data will be available to any agency only with the consent letter of a person agreeing to share his or her details with that respective government agency,” Mr Kumara said.
As detailed in the Registrations of Persons Amendment Act passed in July this year, the department had begun issuing electronic identity cards island wide bearing bio metric data and the family tree of a person.
The Commissioner said as indicated in the Act, he was bound to disclose the personal details of a person under three circumstances. These included, national security, prevention or detection of crime and a court directive.
“Department officials have signed an official secrecy declaration agreeing that the information they handle would not be leaked to any third party. Heavy penalties will be imposed for wrongdoing,” he said.
Clarifying misconceptions that the new identity cards maybe a threat to civil liberties, Commissioner General said the new initiative had been taken by the government for easy access to individual data and effective public service.
He said the department had received more than 5000 forged documents for identity card applications last year alone and he had to ask for the genuine documents.