Dear Editor,

A security lapse caused a breach on the Jamcovid website which exposed the data of over 400,000 visitors to the island. Additionally, the chaos surrounding the clearing up of traffic tickets, coupled with the laxity with which many government entities operate, does not make me overly enthusiastic to put my biometrics in the hands of the Government.

Currently, several countries do not have national identity cards. These include Australia, The Bahamas, Canada, Denmark, India, Japan, New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom, and several more. Therefore, the question is: What do they know that we don’t? When asked of the authorities, Poland was posited as an example.

Former British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said, “The wasteful, bureaucratic, and intrusive ID card system represents everything that has been wrong with government in recent years.” And with that said the national identity system, which was reintroduced to Britain in 2006, was disbanded and the identity cards were scrapped in 2011.

The amount of data that will be required is significantly more than needed for the mere purpose of identification. Placing all this in the hands of the Government is not only an invasion of privacy and an infringement of people’s liberty but a security risk, based on their proven incompetence and a propensity for mishandling sensitive information.

We remain uneducated as to what is in place to counter identity theft, a major precursor to online fraud. Parading sanctions for non-participation should not be the preferred route to achieving aims.

R Nunes

raulstonnunes@gmail.com