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Media Release: We must get identification management right to avoid losing our privacy
31/3/04
"Identity management is the topic that government and business need to get right if we are all to live in a free, open and safe society," said Malcolm Crompton, Federal privacy Commissioner.
"The time is right to have an open debate about identity management."
"This is particularly urgent because there are currently a very large number of identification management projects and or proposals (see list of 30 below) , cutting across government and private sector organisations, that are being considered in a narrow range of circumstances without thinking about the big picture privacy issues.
"If we are not careful we could end up, by default, with a powerful system that could track everything we do even though no one organisation has set out to achieve this.
"Identity management is proposed as a solution to preventing fraud, increasing customer service, improving health protecting national borders and increasing national security.
"If government and business get identification management right we should all benefit, HealthConnect is said to have an annual economic benefit of $300 million. However, identity fraud is said to cost over $1 billion per annum. But if organisations get it wrong we risk losing our privacy.
"My concern is that poor identity management solutions could amount to almost total surveillance of some, if not all, individuals," he said.
"It is time we explored the social, economic and political consequences of identity management, in part to see if we like where it is taking us, and in part to shed light on better and worse ways to go about it.
"Solutions are available. There is no excuse for not considering them. They involve appropriate technologies, appropriate law, strong accountability and complaints systems. But to get this right, we must involve everybody in public discussion of the issues," he said.
The Commissioner's comments came during a speech delivered to the Australian IT Security Forum (http://www.aeema.asn.au/groupings/divs_info.cfm?divisionID=3). The complete speech is available @ http://privacy.gov.au/materials/types/speeches?sortby=60.
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