Privacy Groups Want Brakes Put On Roll Out Of BC ID Card
Prince George, BC – Three groups have banded together to highlight their concerns with the government’s proposed new BC Services Card, set to be launched later this month.
The card is the first program of its kind in Canada – it’s meant to provide secure authentication of citizens seeking access to government services.
The BC Civil Liberties Association and the BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association are calling for a halt to the program in light of several concerns raised by the BC Information and Privacy Commissioner.
In a statement issued Friday, Elizabeth Denham, says while her review of Phase 1 of the cards – enrolling BC residents and issuing the cards – meet legal requirments, she’s making several recommendations to enhance the existing privacy and securty provisions. She says, "By design, this program will collect, use, and disclose the personal information of virtually every British Columbian. And future phases could enable multiple government services to be accessed online."
Denham says Phase 2 will involve considerable risks to personal privacy, with the potential for data linkages to connect a person’s activities across multiple platforms. The Privacy Commissioner says her office will watch vigilantly as the phases move forward, conducting quarterly reviews over the next year to verify that proposed security measures are being implemented.
"I remain deeply concerned that the public has not been consulted about the BC Services Card program, as a whole," says Denham. "Given the program’s profound reach and the amount and type of personal information involved, it is critical that citizens are included in the dialogue."
"This government has got to come clean on the card before we are all forced to use it," says Michael Vonn, Policy Director at the BC Civil Liberties Association. Vonn says the government has a terrible track record when it comes to developing data systems – pointing to the Auditor General’s blasting of the Ministry of Justice’s JUSTIN case management system for poor information security just last month, criticism from the Representative for Children and Youth that the Integrated Case Management System was a "colossal failure", and the BCeSIS student data system, which, Vonn says, must now be completely replaced at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.
"The government’s performance on these projects is appalling on almost every level," says FIPA’s Executive Director, Vincent Gogolek. "We need a public inquiry to get to the bottom of this pattern of privacy invasive, security weak and costly IT adventures – certainly before the latest one is launched."
Comments
Big Brother
Anyone who uses a credit card has no privacy so no issue.
There is no one elected in the Liberal Government who is smart enough to come up with this type of a program, and to ensure that all the safeguards are in place.
This is another case of the Civil Servants putting forth ideas to be rubber stamped by politicians that are incapable to seeing the pro’s and con’s. The Civil Service is probably getting a lot of help from the people who would implement the program and of course make millions in doing so.
We dont have a problem with the present system, so why the hell dont they just leave it alone.
Cant wait for the election, to give these Liberals a hefty kick in the butt.
Palopu – you are kidding, right?
“We dont have a problem with the present system…”
I have a friend who works in the medical system, and the horror stories of abuses by a certain group of folks from a certain Asiatic country who come over, and use one card multiple times is utterly astounding.
This person is keeping a record and it is almost beyond belief. We need some sort of checks on the systemic abuse of our health system.
I had my identity stolen this summer and my credit took a huge hit. I couldn’t figure out how until just this week when I got confirmation from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada that the Ministry of Human Resources and Skills Development had an external hard drive went missing that had all my personal information on it. They are now offering a free credit protection service to me for up to 6-years free of charge, but that is a dollar short and a day late.
I think the idea of having one sole point of all encompassing information is very dangerous to not only our civil liberties, but also to our personal credit information as well. To think we will have to pay $200 million to have this implemented should be an insult to all tax payers.
I call balderdash on the medical system fraud claim. If one is a resident of BC they can get medical coverage and the fraud has never once been documented anywhere and proven beyond doubt, nor has it ever been quantified. Surely there are other methods to address this situation such as asking for a second piece of id with a picture?
Jetstream. If your friend knows whats going on, then so does the Government.
Do you think that spending millions to save thousands is good business.
Neither I nor any member of my family, or anyone I know have ever had a problem with their care cards.
If we have problems in certain areas, then lets solve those problems, rather than creating more by putting in a new system.
Not sure how you can beat the system by having everyone using the same Care Card, unless they are not Canadian Citizens, and come to Canada, use the Card for various services, and then go back to where you came from. If that is happening, then that is an offence, and those doing it should be investigated and charged, as opposed to changing the whole system.
How is a health worker to know that a care card actually belongs to the person standing in front them, without seeing photo ID ? Do you honestly think there are no foreign visitors using family members cards? I’m all for the changes. It is possible to prevent police officers from seeing your health records and health workers from seeing that you drive like an idiot or worse. The technology is there.
One thing I think got overlooked and just realized the other night: they’re going to have to adjust liquor laws. I use my driver license and carecard as my 2 pieces when I get ID’d, how will this affect us younger looking people who want a bottle of wine? I think some places will accept a credit card with matching name, but I don’t carry mine around with me and I don’t want to start.
We are too close to an election. No govt should be permitted to roll out anything new such as this at this time.
oldcoot. How did the health care worker handle the situation for the past 30 years?? Why has it now become at problem.
The only people who could benefit from using someone elses card, would be non-canadians. All others would have a card.
Sooooooo.Why is BC the only Province bringing in this program???? Is the problem restricted to BC???? Has BC asked the other Provinces how they have dealt with the problem. (if it actually exists).
I doubt it.
This is about bringing in a multi million dollar program, that will be beneficial to those who sell and implement the program for the Government.
Just adding your picture to your present care card would be sufficient. Leave the drivers licences alone as that just complicates the issue.
What about the people who do not have a drivers licence??? Will they get separate cards, and if so, then why not give all of us separate cards with our pictures on them??
Perhaps the Government will cross reference the care card, with the drivers license, and determine what people should not be driving because of various medical conditions, that they would not necessarily know about otherwise.
**The road to hell is paved with good intentions.**
**The level of corruption in a Government can be measured by the number of laws it passes**
Why would anyone beleive anything that this Government says. Nothing its done stands up under close scrutiny. Look at BC Rail, HST, Site C, Kemano 2, Private power, etc; etc; etc;
Its time for responsible citizens to take action and get rid of this Government. That is our responsibility, and it has nothing to do with being a Liberal or an NDP, or any other political strip. It has everything to do with cleaning up the Government, and getting rid of those who have been less than honest with the Citizens of BC
There are non Canadians flying into Vancouver everyday. They stay with relatives.
Care cards with photos would be a solution . There should be something with photos.
You will have three options:
1. Photo BCDL and Care Card combined
2. Photo Care Card alone
3. Non-photo Care Card.
If you don’t want the combination card, you’re not required to have one. Pretty simple.
I personally believe there’s a lot of fraud going on as jetstream noted, and it costs taxpayers millions of dollars every year. Any solution that might help that, I support.
finger print scanners would work better.
I have no problem with “one card” systems much as I have no problem with CCTV in public spaces. If you have nothng to hide you have nothing to fret about. If “Big Brother” starts implanting chips into every new-born’s wrist, then there is a cause for revolution. I’d like the convenience and it’s not like some conspiracy to take advantage of YOU. The simple act of turning on your computer, accessing your preferred service provider and clicking on this link gave the “power’s that be” pretty much all the information that they’d want about you (as if they cared enough about said info to do more heinous things than try to sell you stuff). Tin-foil hats do not block convenient Wi-Fi service.
“If you have nothng to hide you have nothing to fret about.”
That’s what Big Brother likes to tell us. How about a CCTV pointed at your home 24/7/365? I’m sure you won’t mind if you’re doing nothing wrong.
I will agree that personal privacy is pretty much gone nowadays. What people do with your information is the real question.
I just heard on the radio news that there are 9.9 million Care Cards in circulation and 4.4 Million BC Residents.
That’s a lot of lost cards. ;-)
[http://www.health.gov.bc.ca/msp/pdf/bc-services-card-id-fact-sheet.pdf]
They are weird looking, that’s for sure.
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