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I was involved in the trail of this system when I worked for the NSW RTA. It was between a restricted number of Commonwealth and State agencies and on the understanding it was a trail to confirm the identity of applicants for Australian passports.
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The NSW Privacy Commissioner at the time agreed to a restricted trial and the information was sent through Centrelink by a number of agencies.
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Reponses were restricted to a Yes/No answer as to whether the information supplied on the source documents matched the driver licence records. It is only verifying the information matches; it does not verify the person who produced the documents is the actual person named in them.
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It was agreed, as I understood it, that any permanent arrangement, following the successful trial, would require appropriate legislation from all participating Commonwealth and State jurisdictions.
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One of the major problems I have with any remote validation system is that it is impossible to be able to confirm the person tendering the documents is in fact the person they purport to be. This was why I always opposed approaches from financial institutions to the RTA seeking an identity verification system.
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Another problem is the need to ensure you have informed consent before you go using the personal information you have to verify someone’s identity.
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I have known Malcolm Crompton for a number of years. I was the Secretary of the Australian IAPP when he was President. I respect his reputation and qualifications. I understand, from the article, that “No consultations took place with civil society.”
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One of the main purposes and intentions of a Privacy Impact Statement (PIA) is to engage the community in any large database holding personal information and, when it is finished, publish it to reassure the community their privacy will be protected. In this case, as I understand it, the Report was suppressed.
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Every Australian should be concerned the way this system has been quietly introduced despite the intention of the Privacy legislation in the various states and the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth Privacy Acts are week to say the least, but they are better than nothing and seem to have been ignored to suit the needs of the Governments.
