We've all been faced at some point by the visitor-book-wielding security guard, anxious to know who you are, who you're meeting, if you have a firearm or laptop, and if so, what the serial number is, etc. More concerned about making your appointment on time than the quality of your script on the tear-out slip, you promptly rush through the completion of the form, leaving the guard to the carbon copy, and your personal information. Would-be thieves or wrongdoers are hardly perturbed by such a book and can easily take on the persona of Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck when they sign in fraudulently. Well, this is all about to change.
South Africans will have noticed an explosion in the number of residential estates and office parks that are now requesting a driver's licence as a form of valid identification. The purpose of this article is to raise awareness of this technology and debunk some common myths.
The machine readable component (bar code) of the South African driver's licence contains nothing other than the visible information displayed on the card, except for the image of the fingerprint and the image of the driver's signature displayed on the card, which are not stored in the machine readable component. Your photograph as reflected on the front of the card is embedded in the bar code and all data is encrypted. In order to decrypt the data string, you will require the decryption algorithm, which is available from Bartrans to solution providers.
Section 17 of the Identification Act (No 68 of 1997) prescribes the legal framework of identity verification of South African citizens by "an authorised officer", which basically is a peace officer, such as a policeman or any other person designated by the minister of home affairs in a Gazette to be deemed a peace officer. In accordance with the Act, the South African driving licence is a valid form of identification in terms of section 17.4.
However, when persons or bodies other than "an authorised officer" as prescribed in the Act becomes involved in a process of identity verification, such persons may agree on any form of identification, as long as there is mutual consent.
In a situation where a person wants access to a restricted area and there is a process of identity verification, the visitor must always consent to his identity being verified by the body providing conditional access. When the visitor refuses to identify himself/herself, the right of access can be withheld. When a visitor hands over his/her driver's licence for the purposes of identifying himself/herself, such a person thereby consents to be identified in that manner. If you would rather hand over your passport or identity document then this should be acceptable too. The main reason for requesting the driver's licence is that you are normally entering the premises in a vehicle, and should thus have a valid licence at hand.
There is no difference in the information obtained from a visual verification versus a digitally scanned verification, both providing the same information to the person performing the verification. The added benefit of capturing all the data in one swift scan actually speeds up the entry/exit procedure. The fact that your picture is also stored in the encrypted bar code potentially means you do not have to exit your vehicle and have your profile picture taken, adding convenience too.
The main concern, however, from the general public is one of identity theft, which is a very real threat in our country. Identity theft is defined as: "The crime of obtaining the personal or financial information of another person for the sole purpose of assuming that person's name or identity in order to make transactions or purchases." The process of verifying the identity of a visitor by means of a visual and/or digital scanning of the driver's licence, when consented to by the visitor, is not illegal, nor does it amount to identity theft, nor does it infringe on any rights of the visitor.
If the body or person performing the identity verification utilises the information obtained from such verification for any other purpose than identity verification not consented to by the visitor, such use of that information may be an infringement of the rights of such visitor, including but not limited to possible identity theft.
Fortunately, the government signed the Protection of Personal Information Act, or POPI Act, into effect as of November 2013. This Act serves to protect your personal information from misuse, and more information pertaining to that can be found at http://www.popi-compliance.co.za/.
Licence scanning technology is also being used successfully in the financial and automotive sectors to prevent fraud. The technology is ensuring that drivers of vehicles in the transport and logistics sectors have valid licences for the class of vehicle they are being asked to drive. Should you have any potential requirements for this technology, please do not hesitate to contact Bartrans directly.
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