Concerns over data purge of NIDS database

The Jamaican Bar Association has raised concern that there is no provision in the current National Identification and Registration Act (NIRA) for an individual’s data to be purged from the database if a cancellation is requested.

Making a presentation on Wednesday before the joint select committee examining the proposed law, Carlene Larmond, a member of the Bar Association, pointed to other instances where purging of an individual’s data was prescribed.

The only provision relating to purging in the bill, according to Larmond, was in a case where NIRA cancels, either for inaccuracy or if someone was ineligible for enrolment, placement in the National Identification System database.

“It is our submission that in all cases of cancellation the individual’s data ought to be purged,” Larmond said.

Turning to administrative issues, Larmond also questioned why a diplomat who was ineligible to enrol on NIDS was entitled to apply for, and receive information, stored in the national database.

Committee Chairman Delroy Chuck said that the proposed legislation gave diplomats the opportunity, under Section 25, to check whether they were enrolled.

SYMPATHETIC TO CONCERNS

Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister Kamina Johnson Smith said she was sympathetic to the concerns raised by the Bar.

“Why are we asking the NIRA to prove a negative? If the act says that they are not eligible, it’s not optional for them, you know.

“ ... Why are we then giving them a right to ask the NIRA to prove this negative to them?”

However, attorneys from the Office of the Chief Parliamentary Counsel said there could be a situation in which a person who might have been enrolled subsequently becomes a diplomat and loses eligibility to be enrolled on the system.

In such a scenario, the individual would want to ensure that his information was purged from the database, the attorneys argued.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com