The application of a personal identification database and risk management mechanism

Abstract

In the ICT era and take into account the trend toward NPM, Governance has been urging the e-government to provide “active” and “tailored” services. More importantly, in the aged society resulting from the aging baby boomers, the services of a democratic government need to be more satisfactory and timely when a large part of the citizens in any society become old. A system or database containing personal data by which to identify individuals is indispensable when the e-government wants to deliver services. According to Tsai (2005a: 7)’s research: a method of personal identification is used to distinguish the data specific to personal characteristics such as ID cards, credit cards, GCA, signatures, fingerprint, iris scans, blood vessels, etc. The first part assigns data on personal characteristics on the “carrier,” and the second part makes us of a “live” body. Because the “carrier” may be lost and copied, the second method is less risky from the current perspectives of “duplication” technology. Although a “live” body is better than a “carrier,” considering the method of personal identification, there is another issue that must be considered when the e-government wants to collect personal data that relates to the issue of “privacy,” not to mention the development of a means by which to integrate different kinds of personal “live” data into a database. Therefore, in this research, a literature analysis and the political economy approach are used to explore this issue based on demand and supply, problems of privacy, risks, and management mechanisms because determining a method by which to ensure that personal identification data is not leaked and misused is a very serious issue. This also involves the concept of “risk,” as Beck, Giddens, Lash & Urry (1994) mentioned in their discussion of “Risk Society” in the “Second Modernity.” As a result, risk management is vital, especially the recognition of how risk diverges among people. This essay therefore focuses on the following: how to choose a proper personal identification tool, the establishment of a personal identification database and the creation of a set of safe enquiry mechanisms, which includes both inquiry rights and inquiry methods. This inquiry method contains both public usage and personal usage, based on group decisions and self-decisions, respectively. Furthermore there should be laws established to punish offenders. Thus, this paper not only provides a method for using personal identification to benefit people, but also offer cures intended to prevent risk by using a special enquiry mechanism. Consequently, the e-government will be able to actively provide tailored services and provide welfare to the population. More important, this decision making mechanism model could be widely applied to solve similar kind of problems, especially in the diverged era. Besides, this kind of integrative platforms could be applied to different ministries as a basic infrastructure to achieve the aims of openness, transparency, knowledge accumulation, etc. on the part of e-governments.