MSD Pushes Ahead with Online Identity Check System Despite Privacy, Human Rights and Ethics Concerns

November 22, 2022

The government is banking on an online system for checking people’s identity despite persistent gaps around its implications for humans rights, ethics and Māori.

Identity Check is being tested in a nationwide pilot and on beneficiaries.

That is despite the Ministry of Social Development lacking a privacy, human rights and ethics framework - though this was a must-have, it said.

The system’s creator, The Department of Internal Affairs, has launched a nationwide pilot even though “no specific Māori engagement has been conducted regarding Identity Check”.

OIA documents show the Identity Check system could be used more than 250,000 times a year, each by larger public agencies or companies.

They will have to pay between 15 cents and 40 cents per check, which appears to be subsidised, as each check costs the government $1.50-$1.90 in licensing fees to DIA’s facial recognition supplier, Daon, the OIA said.

The documents also show MSD came within weeks of launching an earlier version, before finding “critical gaps in the tool”.

The ministry completed a privacy, human rights and ethics report at the time, in mid-2020.

But when RNZ asked for it, MSD said it “does not exist”.