B.C. privacy advocates want stop to ID card until privacy concerns addressed

VANCOUVER – Two advocacy groups want the B.C. government to hold off on its plan to combine drivers licences and health care cards until privacy concerns can be addressed.

The call from the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association follow a statement from Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham, who says the plan has some problems.

Denham wants the program stopped until there are public consultations about combining driver and health information in the cards, which are supposed to roll out beginning this month.

Micheal Vonn of the civil liberties association says the government has a terrible track record when it comes to developing data systems and it must provide clear information about the new cards before people are forced to use them.

The government insists the driver and health data on the cards will be separated by security measures that will prevent police from accessing a person’s medical files and stop health care staff from seeing a person’s driving record.

But Vonn points to other government data management systems that have been huge failures, including electronic criminal justice files that had such poor security that B.C.’s auditor general said getting into them was as easy as walking into a public library.