Media Announcement: Privacy Commissioner responds to Access Card Taskforce Paper
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25/08/2006
The Privacy Commissioner, Karen Curtis, has recommended a range of privacy safeguards be developed for the proposed health and social services access card. These recommendations have been made in her submission to the first Discussion Paper released by the Access Card Consumer and Privacy Taskforce.
“There is a need to ensure that benefits resulting from the access card system are balanced with the possible impacts on an individual’s privacy,” Ms Curtis said.
In her submission to the Taskforce, Ms Curtis proposes that a number of key areas be addressed in the access card planning process including in the areas of card system design, technology choices, legislation and oversight measures.
“It will be important that choices are available to individuals, particularly concerning how their images are handled and that the government adopts privacy enhancing technologies,” Ms Curtis said.
The submission also calls for the enactment of legislation with privacy protection measures which apply over all elements of the access card system, including sanctions and remedies. Specifically, it recommends that legislation: limit the uses of the physical card; prevent unauthorised access to, collection or misuse of information on the card or chip; and prevent unauthorised or unintended uses and disclosures, including routine data-matching. In addition, the submission suggests that individuals should have transparent rights to access and, where necessary, correct information on the system.
The submission suggests that further detailed privacy impact assessments be undertaken during the design and implementation of the access card system.
“It is important for privacy protections to be developed while the access card is still in the planning process, rather than trying to add these on at a later stage,” Ms Curtis said.
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