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2018.04.09
6 Senator S.C. Ferguson of the Chief Minister regarding the information about
individuals to be contained in the Yoti app: [OQ.60/2018]
How much information about individuals will the new Yoti app contain, including in relation to tracking, and how much of this information will be shared with the States?
Senator I.J. Gorst :
I ask Deputy Wickenden to answer this please.
The Bailiff :
Deputy Wickenden, you will speak English, will you not, in answering this? Deputy S.M. Wickenden of St. Helier :
Sorry, I did not hear that?
The Bailiff :
That is all right. Okay.
Deputy S.M. Wickenden (Assistant Chief Minister - rapporteur):
So I say firstly for the benefit of everyone here I should clarify that Yoti is the company that was successful in the tender process to provide the States of Jersey with a digital identification solution. That was not quite clear in the question so I thought I would clarify. When setting up the Yoti app it will collect the individual's full name, date of birth, gender, nationality, address, photo I.D. (identification), email address and mobile phone number. The States of Jersey, when asking for verification, will only ask for the full name, date of birth and address. The Yoti company has no access to customer data. It merely provides the platform that enables customers to share selected information with third parties.
- Senator S.C. Ferguson:
So when a youngster is attempting to enter licensed premises will it supply the location where the youngster is located? I am wanting to know what the ability of this app is to identify location and who can access that information.
Deputy S.M. Wickenden:
The app itself merely holds the information on the phone and then allows it to be shared, what information you choose. So you only choose which information you require to share with who you are trying to access services from. So if it was for age verification you just share your date of birth. You do not share all of your information. There is no need for any geotracking to happen when this is available, but I am not 100 per cent sure that something does not happen but I will go and find out for you.
- Senator S.C. Ferguson:
Yes, I would thank the Deputy for this because the one question that I have been asked, which perhaps I have not explained terribly well ... things have changed since I studied this ... the one thing that people were worrying about was the access to information by States departments, such as the police or ambulances or fire or whichever, and what information is going to be available, and this is what is worrying people.
Deputy S.M. Wickenden:
I thank the Senator. As I say, there is no one big database that holds the information. The information is held by yourself and it is a verification. So there is no database that can be hacked or shared with police services because the information is on the person's device, not anywhere else. So that information would not be available anywhere because there is no big database to ask about.
- Deputy G.P. Southern :
Is this new Yoti system a precursor to electronic voting? Deputy S.M. Wickenden:
I would say absolutely. I would say that we have got all the final pieces in place to start getting ready for online voting by the election after the one that is about to come.
- Senator S.C. Ferguson:
If the Deputy could supply more information because people are concerned about their information being accessed, not held in a database, but accessed and with everything else that is going on electronically it would be a good thing if the Deputy or the department could explain exactly what is available in words of possibly one syllable for those of us who are not quite up to date with this. So will the Deputy undertake to make sure that a nice simple explanation of who can access the information, who can identify where you are location-wise and generally explain about the app?
Deputy S.M. Wickenden:
I think this is where there is a good benefit for this app because you share just the information you choose to share. When you hand over your passport you share all of your information, you do not get to pick and choose. So this is one of the things that certainly gets us ready for G.D.P.R. (General Data Protection Regulation). I will make sure that I get the relevant information about if there is a geotag location or if there is a location on when you use your service where you are and I will share that information but as it goes there is not a database. It is all on the device itself.