New Zealanders have been having their say on possible new rules for biometric processing, which the Office of the Privacy Commissioner is now sharing. Biometric processing is the use of technologies, like facial recognition technology, to collect and process people’s biometric information to identify them or learn about them.

The Office publicly released draft rules for using biometrics for consultation in May and received 250 submissions from members of the public, businesses, government agencies and advocacy organisations giving their view.

Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster says, "Almost every one of the submissions from members of the public told us that people were concerned about the use of biometrics in New Zealand.

"There was broad support for the proposals in the exposure draft code."

180 people and 70 agencies (totalling 250 submissions) had a month to make submissions. Sectors represented included those from banking to border security, to biometrics vendors and retailers. OPC also heard from Māori stakeholders.

"That will help my Office to continue working on the proposals. We heard that the proposals need to be clear and purposeful, practical to apply, and avoid creating an unreasonable compliance burden," says Mr Webster.

Background and information on codes of practice

The proposals for biometrics were in an exposure draft code of practice to give people an idea of what they might look like and the chance to submit on the draft rules. If adopted, a biometrics code would be a code of practice that would modify some of the privacy principles in the Privacy Act 2020.

It would create more specific privacy rules for agencies using biometric technologies to collect and process biometric information. The exposure draft included three main proposals :

1. adding a requirement to do a proportionality test and to put in place appropriate privacy safeguards

2. additional notification and transparency obligations

3. fair processing limits that restrict some uses of biometric classification.

A biometrics code is by nature a technical document. However, one of the key themes from the feedback received was that rules need to be as simple as possible, easy to understand and implement, and supported by guidance.

What happens next?

The Privacy Commissioner is considering the feedback and expects to announce his decision on whether he intends to go ahead with a code later this year. If the decision is to proceed, there will be a further opportunity for people to have their say on the code proposed during public consultation.

Other codes

New Zealand already has six codes under the Privacy Act, including the Health Information Privacy Code 2020, which outlines rules that apply when health information is collected or held by health agencies, and the Civil Defence National Emergencies (Information Sharing) Code 2020, which allows agencies to collect, use or share personal information with public sector agencies to assist in the government response to a national emergency.

Read the detail of the feedback on the draft code for biometrics on the OPC website.

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