Privacy concerns grow with government biometric adoption
25 September, 2009
category: Biometrics, Government
New Zealand’s recent moves towards biometric protection at their borders has some privacy advocates fearing that similar power and technological capabilities will be extended to other areas of the government for use domestically, according to a TVNZ article.
The technology that New Zealand has put into place allows Australian and New Zealand citizen’s travel between the two countries quicker via a biometric passport and smart gates at security checkpoints that compare the biometric information on the passport with that of the individual traveling.
The major fears stem from New Zealand joining the U.S., Canada, Britain and Australia to work together on managing entry visas. While the rest of the countries have agreed to share biometric information with each other, New Zealand has not yet made that agreement.
Many worry that the information shared could breach privacy for individual citizens as there are little details in place about how the information will be shared as well as what information is to be shared.
Read the full story here.