On the afternoon of February 6, in Hanoi, the Ministry of Public Security held a workshop on evaluating scientific solutions and biometric technology of DNA, voice, and iris to serve the implementation of the new Law on Identification, effective from July 1, 2024.
At the workshop, Deputy Minister of Public Security Nguyen Duy Ngoc said that the Law on Identification has been passed by the National Assembly and will take effect from July 1, 2024, including new regulations related to adding biometric information such as DNA, iris, and voice to the identification database.
Deputy Minister Nguyen Duy Ngoc affirmed that the implementation of technological utilities for people has been carried out synchronously and consistently with applications, biometric authentication, chip utilities on ID cards, and electronic identification. This has been successful in reducing and shortening administrative procedures and making them more user-friendly.
The leader of the Ministry of Public Security also cited that currently, many countries in the world have built national databases on DNA, iris, and voice to serve population management, crime prevention, natural disasters, and search for victims. In Vietnam, steps have been taken to approach this, but there are still many difficulties in terms of legality and information technology infrastructure.
Deputy Minister Nguyen Duy Ngoc said that when issuing regulations on applying biometrics, there were also many different opinions. However, the Law on Identification has been passed and now we need to discuss how to implement it effectively. In the process of developing regulations, the Department of Administrative Police for Social Order is assigned to implement and will continue to be open to and listen to comments.
At the workshop, scientists, managers, and experts focused on discussing and clarifying the following contents: priority subjects for implementation (the Law on Identification affirms that people are voluntary), is it mandatory for crime prevention groups to apply biometrics? What will the application provide? How will the technological solution be implemented? What is the sampling plan? (taking blood samples, saliva...); storage time? Investment solutions?...
Sharing his views at the workshop, Professor Ho Tu Bao (Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics) said that biometrics is a part of human destiny, a field of scientific research and data mining to confirm identities. During the implementation process, Professor Bao noted the need to measure each individual sample and identify them. According to him, DNA has many advantages such as high accuracy, cannot be forged, but has the disadvantage of high cost. Meanwhile, voice biometrics is low cost, easy to use and the equipment is simpler to apply, but has the disadvantage of being forged and the language environment can be affected. Along with that, iris biometrics has an average cost but requires complex equipment and higher costs.
Mr. Nong Van Hai (Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology) said that the choice of biometric solutions should be based on cost, convenience and security. According to Mr. Hai, from now until the Law on Identification takes effect, there should be a project to clearly assign resources and a council related to ethical issues when taking samples. Meanwhile, regarding investment resources to implement solutions, Mr. Hai suggested that they could be taken from the state budget, socialized resources and international support (if any).
"This is a long-term task that affects the whole society and is related to Vietnam's national position in science and technology. I think we need to consult other countries in the world to see how they do it," said Mr. Hai.
Continuing to present opinions and solutions to apply biometrics to the identification database, Mr. Nguyen Duc Cong (Thong Nhat Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City) said that applying DNA to identification is a solution, not everything, and DNA data, according to Mr. Cong's understanding, is mainly in crime prevention. Therefore, the implementation process needs to collect genes for people with different constitutions, because each person with a different constitution will give different results, which can cause this or that disease. Mr. Cong supports gene collection through blood sampling. During the process of sharing opinions, Mr. Cong expressed some concerns that this is a costly "solution", so further research is needed.
Colonel Vu Van Tan, Deputy Director of the Police Department for Administrative Management of Social Order, said that from July 1, 2024, when the Law on Identification takes effect, in theory, if people request, DNA will be integrated into the new identification card. According to Mr. Tan, through research from countries around the world such as the US, UK, and China, all apply DNA in identification cards and DNA data.
According to Mr. Tan, in the world, sharing of biometric data (European Convention) is also allowed on a voluntary basis and for the purpose of searching and crime. In the US, the Identification Act also affirms the above content. In Vietnam, the recent Identification Law also includes DNA in the law.
Next, looking more broadly, Europe also allows 20 gene addresses into the data; in Vietnam, 30 gene addresses are being built into the identity card.
DO TRUNG
Source
Comment (0)