Monday, September 19, 2005

Privacy Comissioners Montreux Declaration

Privacy commissioners from all over the world meeting in Switzerland have issued a declaration calling for wider imlementation of basic privacy principles and a resolution on the use of biometrics in passports, ID cards and travel documents.

The latter tackles the mass move towards the deployment of biometrics by governments and commerce, which will have "a far-reaching impact on the global society and should therefore be subject to an open worldwide debate." The commissioners therefore call for


"1. effective safeguards to implemented at an early stage to limit the risks inherent in the nature of biometrics,

2. the strict disctinction between biometric data collected and stored for public purposes (e.g. border control) on the basis of legal obligations and for contractual purposes based on consent,

3. the technical restriction of the use of biometrics in passports and identity cards to verification purposes comparing the data in the document with the data provided by the holder when presenting the document."

This makes a lot of sense to me and, not surprisingly, coincides with principles outlined in the LSE report on the UK government's proposed national identity card.

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