Safeguards crucial with ABC system

THE EDITOR: Congratulations to the various ministries and the Airports Authority on the implementation of the Automated Border Control (ABC) system. It is a progressive step.

Yet, using the ABC without proper data protection legislation does not augur well for citizens’ rights vis-a-vis informational privacy.

Broadly speaking, the point of such legislation is to ensure that citizens’ data is processed fairly and accurately and to ensure any entities using same utilise robust security measures. Additionally, in the event of a data breach it will provide civil recourse to the data subjects.

It is not enough to simply use the ABC because other countries use it. In fact, countries which do use this system, like the US, UK and EU countries, all subscribe to data protection laws, thus ensuring that standards relating to informational privacy are followed.

For example, under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulations 2018, biometric data (facial recognition and finger printing) is given special recognition as a “sensitive category,” unlike its predecessor (Data Protection Directive 1995). As a sensitive category, entities must undertake a privacy impact assessment amongst other measures, since processing such data is a high risk to rights and freedoms of citizens.

This is how modern data (like biometric data) may be treated in a modern legal context.

Such safeguards are crucial given the type of data at stake; utmost care must be taken by data processors, because of the potential scope of abuse in the event of a data breach.

It is imperative, therefore, that we modernise our data protection law and fully enact it to match the use of new technologies. The authorities should “pause for a cause.”

MUKTA BALROOP, London