The Data Protection Commission (DPC) has ruled that collecting facial (biometric) data for the Public Services Card (PSC) is against the law, reports Breaking News.
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) said it partly welcomes the ruling but criticised it as “more than a decade late and inadequate”.
Previously, the Government had insisted that facial scans were not considered biometric data. However, on Thursday, the DPC concluded that the Department of Social Protection (DSP) unlawfully gathered facial images (biometric data) from 70 percent of Ireland’s population over the past 15 years, reports Breaking News.
The ICCL also claimed that the department did not inform people why their facial data was being collected or clarify its legal basis.
Following these breaches, the DPC imposed administrative fines of €550,000 on the Department of Social Protection as a reprimand, reports Breaking News.
The DPC also ordered the department to stop using biometric data for SAFE 2 registration within nine months unless it can prove a lawful justification for doing so.
Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle stated: “It is important to note that none of the findings of infringement identified, nor the corrective powers exercised by the DPC, pertain to the rollout of SAFE 2 registration by the DSP as a matter of principle.
“The DPC did not find any evidence of inadequate technical and organisational security measures deployed by the DSP in connection with SAFE 2 registration in the context of this inquiry, reports Breaking News.
“This inquiry was concerned with assessing whether the legislative framework presently in place for SAFE 2 registration complies with the requirements of data protection law and whether the DSP operates SAFE 2 registration in a data protection-compliant manner, and the findings announced today identify a number of deficiencies in this regard,” reports Breaking News.
The ICCL argued that the DPC failed to take strong enough action and said that its response after 15 years of violations is insufficient.
The group is demanding the immediate removal of the database containing unlawfully obtained facial recognition data, reports Breaking News.
It also called on both the department and the DPC to explain to the Oireachtas and the public how such a system was allowed to function illegally for over a decade.
Joe O’Brien, Executive Director of ICCL, said: “For many years, ICCL and our colleagues at Digital Rights Ireland, have argued that the PSC’s mandatory use of facial recognition technology is unlawful, reports Breaking News.
“This is a partial win for the privacy and data protection rights of people living in Ireland. It confirms what we have advocated for, for many years – that the Public Services Card, which was estimated to have cost the State €100 million, trespassed upon human rights and infringed EU and Irish law, reports Breaking News.
“The DPC decision is over a decade late and does not go far enough. The Department effectively created a de facto national biometric ID system by stealth over 15-plus years without a proper legal foundation. This illegal database of millions of Irish people’s biometric data must be deleted,” reports Breaking News.
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