LALIT proteste kont Nuvo Regulation pu Re-Anrezistreman Kart SIM
28.11.2023
LALIT zordi finn avoy Premye Minis enn let pu proteste kont so nuvo Regleman pu tu dimunn ki ena enn portab re-anrezistre zot SIM Kard. So regulation dir si u al kot MyT, Emtel, MTML, zot bizin tir u foto. Zot pu servi sa foto-la dan enn fason biometrik pu konpar li avek foto dan databeys Kart Idantite kot Leta Sivil. Regulation-la osi dir ki MyT, Emtel ek MTML bizin kapte e gard done personel tu dimunn ki anrezistre kart SIM kot zot. Mem si dimunn anvi re-anrezistre u par internet, u bizin skann u figir pu ki fer sa konparezon biometrik ar databeys Leta Sivil. Nu pa dakor ki konpayni prive gayn enn databeys done personel tu so itilizater kart SIM ek akse a databeys santral Leta Sivil. Nu pa dakor ki ena sa kalite akse par enn espes kurwa internet pu chek linformasyon biometrik kuma foto u nerport ki lot done personel.
Dayer kan ti ena introdiksyon kart idantite biometrik avek so databeys, LALIT ti premye parti pu amenn kanpayn kont sa kalite sirveyans Leta. MSM ek lezot parti finn swiv apre. Feu Madhewoo osi ti met ka Lakur Siprem. Pravind Jugnauth personelman ti met ka Lakur Siprem pu ki deklar databeys biometrik anti-Konstitisyonel. E zot finn gayne Lakur Siprem: Zizman finn deklar databeys biometrik anti-Konstitisyonel.
Zot finn mem “alarme”, pu sit zot Zizman kimanyer Data Protection Act, lalwa ki sipoze protez done personel, pa protez dimunn preske ditu, telman ena eksepsyon dan lalwa ki permet lapolis, Premye Minis, MRA, u mem pei inperyalis gayn akse a data personel dimunn. Zizman-la dir dimunn ti bizin ena proteksyon lakur plito.
LALIT finn dir li retir so Regulation.
Ala let ki LALIT finn avoy Premye Minis zordi:
To the Prime Minister
28 November. 2023
LALIT’s OPEN LETTER ON NEW REGULATION FOR SIM CARD RE-REGISTRATION
Dear Sir,
LALIT writes to you about the new regulation passed by you that will be mandatory for all people in the Republic of Mauritius in order to have a SIM card. A SIM card has over the years become a basic form of communication for all people. We protest against the collection and storing of coloured photographs by private SIM card providers that will be used for biometric online real-life checking with the NIC database at the Civil Status Office. There are already similar concerns being expressed about this, see in particular Iqbal Khan’s dossier on the SIM Card Re-Registration Regulation in yesterday’s L’Express.
Your regulation stipulates that SIM card companies (MyT, Emtel and MTML) will be responsible for making “image checks” defined in your regulation as being “the measurement and analysis of physical characteristics that are unique to a person”. SIM Card companies will even “be required to take the coloured photograph of the applicant for the online real time verification of the subscriber’s identity”. SIM card owners re-registering remotely will be required to do “live detection” on their smart phone which means scanning their face for biometric verification (“the various facial challenges to verify the presence of the person making a SIM registration on the Internet” to quote from your regulation).
In response to a Parliamentary Question on 24th October this year, you stated “The ICTA does not and will not have access to those personal data”. However you also stated that personal data of SIM card holders, which we assume includes coloured photographs used for biometric verification will be collected and stored by SIM card companies “in conformity” you state “with the Data Protection Act”. It is unacceptable that private companies and their employees be empowered to do this.
When the last government imposed a centralised database for biometric National Identity Cards, we in LALIT were the only political party campaigning against the dangers of State surveillance. Your party, the MSM as well as other parties, recognising these dangers joined LALIT in opposing the biometric Nartional Identity Card with its centralised database. You personally lodged a case in the Supreme Court to challenge its Constitutionality. As did late Mr Madhewoo. The two Supreme Court judgements ruled the biometric centralised database anti-Constitutional. And it was scrapped.
LALIT has consistently since 2013 protested against the draconian exemptions to protection of personal data in the Data Protection Act. Such exemptions to get access to personal data allow police on the pretext of investigation even before charges are laid, imperialist countries, or if you or any other future Prime Minister decides so on the pretext that it is in the interests of national or public safety; or any other State authority on the pretext that it is needed for “legal advice”. You stated in Parliament that the collection and storage by SIM card companies will be effected under the Data Protection Act. This is no protection at all. We are not the only ones to say so.
In the Madhewoo judgement, the Supreme Court had the following scathing remarks to say about the Data Protection Act, the same law under which collection and storage of personal data will be effected by SIM card companies under your new Regulation:
“The above survey of the legal exemptions makes it manifestly clear that the personal data of individuals such as the plaintiff can be readily accessed in a large number of situations. What is even more alarming is the relatively low threshold prescribed for obtaining access to personal data. A striking illustration of that is the enactment in section 52 (iii) (supra) whereby access may be obtained merely by invoking that the disclosure of the data is necessary for the purpose of obtaining legal advice.
“What is even more objectionable is the absence of any safeguard by way of judicial control to monitor the access to personal data. The only instance where a Court Order is mentioned is under section 52 (i) (supra) and here too the basis upon which a Court Order may be granted is not set out at all.
“In view of what we have stated above, it is inconceivable that there can be such uncontrolled access to personal data in the absence of the vital safeguards afforded by judicial control. The potential for misuse or abuse of the exercise of the powers granted under the law would be significantly disproportionate to the legitimate aim which the defendants have claimed in order to justify the retention and storage of personal data under the Data Protection Act.
For all the reasons given above, we conclude that the plaintiff has been able to establish that the retention and storage of personal data under the Data Protection Act is not reasonably justifiable in a democratic society.”
In addition, the Madhewoo judgement was convinced by witness Sookun’s evidence in Court of the risks and damages the storage and retention system potentially had. The judgement quotes from witness Sookun’s testimony that “no database is foolproof” (…) and that “there are no sufficient security features at the Civil Status division”.
The judges were also convinced by his testimony that:
“(i) in view of the rapid technological development in the field of information technology, there is a serious risk that in future the private life interests bound up with biometric information may be adversely affected in novel and unpredictable ways;
(iv) the personal data of individuals with no criminal record will be retained indefinitely in the same way as the personal data of convicted persons.”
This is the basis on which the biometric National Identity Card and its centralised database was declared anti-Constitutional and finally scrapped. You are now introducing similar measures in your Regulation. There already is a National Identity Card for verification purposes. This is sufficient.
We note that you lean heavily on former Judge Lam Shang Leen who presided the Commission of Inquiry against Drug Trafficking to explain your reason for this new Regulation. Yet he did not recommend the procedure used in your regulation. All he did was to outline cases where drug traffickers had gotten access to a multitude of SIM cards and was concerned in particular about the abusive utilisation of SIM cards of tourists, travel agents, workers from abroad and those of the deceased. What he recommended was the following:
“Regulation must be made so that any person wishing to obtain a sim card must personally fill in the application form with all relevant information to identify and locate the person and only one sim card can be given per application to prevent corrupt seller of sim cards in tobacco outlet to insert more sim card numbers without the knowledge of the applicant.”
This certainly does not include MyT, Emtel and MTML being empowered to collect and store coloured photographs and other personal data of its SIM card users and effect biometric verification with the Civil Status database.
We call for the immediate scrapping of these provisions in your Regulation.
Rajni Lallah
For LALIT
