Having been involved in dealing with requests from law enforcement bodies for access to motor vehicle registration and driver licences information and images, any such systems need to ensure a high level of security and check s and balances.

Any such system is open to abuse, not so much from intentional misuse, but from a lack of tight policies and/or guidelines or an over enthusiastic commitment to the need to catch the “bad guys”.

Apart from the possibility of the law enforcement bodies misusing the biometric information to which they have access, there is the whole other issue of pubs and clubs collecting the biometric and/or personal information of members’ f the general public.

The Commonwealth Privacy Commissioner has been investigating the possible privacy breaches involved in pubs and clubs non-compliance with the Privacy Act in regard t how they collect, store, use disclose personal information for years. I am yet to hear of an outcome of such investigations.

When anyone collects personal information, depending on the applicable privacy legislation, they are, in general terms, supposed to tell people that thy ear collecting the information, by what right, whether it is requires by law, the consequences if it is not supplied, the intended purpose of collecting it, where it is to be stored and who will have access to it. All of this should be provided at the time of collection (e.g. by a written notice) or as soon as practicable after collection.

I am yet to see any such signs at the pubs or clubs that collect this information. These organisations also have an obligation to protect the information from misuse. Again I have no seen anything in writing to say how the information is stored or to whom, if anyone, they sell or pass on the information.

To a large extent law enforcement bodies are exempt from privacy legislation. This in itself is a worry. The Australian Council for Civil Liberties has every right to be concerned.

I know there is a general acceptance these days that everything about us is out there on social media, but that doesn’t mean you should just accept it. What happens in a situation where your biometric information is passed on the law enforcement bodies? Is it kept forever, just in case you commit a crime in the future? Ask the UK about the problems they are having with trying to get the Police to destroy biometric data once they have it.

You are being warned. Ignore it at your own peril.