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Experts urge law to protect IDs

Public access to sensitive data online raises concerns

By Victor Velek
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
September 12th, 2007 issue

The risks of someone getting your digits

With your birth number, a criminal not only knows your birth date, but can also:
Screen for additional sensitive data by breaking into various commercial and state registers — the birth number is the cornerstone of the majority of Czech databases
Access information on your health condition through national health registers featuring data on your medical history, including diseases and therapies undergone
Access information on your financial status through databases of banks, insurance companies, tax offices and cadastre excerpts, among others
Access information on any legal disputes or appearances before courts
Access information on your shopping habits and consumer preferences through market researches and polls you've taken part in
With all this data, an abuser can single out people as suitable targets for burglary or blackmail
It could also lead to identity theft, resulting in a series of frauds — taking loans and leases in someone else's name, for example

A group of entrepreneurs and personal data protection experts are calling for the government to do more to protect birth registration numbers, worried that their availability on the Internet could lead to an explosion in identity theft.
Rodné číslo, or a personal “birth number,” is a 10-digit code — featuring the year, month and day of birth followed by an additional four digits — assigned to every baby born to Czech citizens. Birth numbers are also assigned to foreigners with permanent and long-term visas and EU citizens with both short- and long-term residency permits. They’re similar to other countries’ social security numbers.
As more government databases have gone online in recent years, those precious identifying numbers have become widely available to anyone with a computer.
“My birth number can be seen by everybody on the Internet … on all of my invoices, receipts and perhaps on other documents as well,” said Jiří Šebesta, a board member of the Association of Prague Entrepreneurs.
In 2006, Šebesta made an official complaint about public access to his birth number to the Office for Personal Data Protection (ÚOOÚ), the national privacy watchdog.
ÚOOÚ officials sympathized but said they can’t do anything specific unless a new law is passed.
“We are against the use of birth numbers in publicly accessible databases as it is sensitive personal information. However, the practice is rooted in laws preceding the establishment of our office,” said ÚOOÚ spokeswoman Hana Štěpánková.
Government officials discussed assigning new, random identity numbers to people, so that their birth dates are kept secret, but scrapped the idea in 2006 because of its high cost.
As online identity theft grows globally, local officials are taking a closer look at how to protect personal information, said Jan Folda, a data protection office worker. So far, however, social networking Web sites such as MySpace and Facebook, where thieves have managed to hijack personal information, aren’t as popular in the Czech Republic as they are in other countries, Folda said.
People are often unaware of potential dangers of those Web sites and give away a great deal of private information about themselves that can be abused or sold, he added.
In the United States, there’s a black market where, for a few dollars, people buy someone else’s personal data stolen from these sites, Folda explained. “Here, such a market isn’t developed.”
Fewer companies are requiring the birth number for identification these days. But they’re still available on government databases such as the business register, which is free online, and the Real Estate Cadastre, which users can access after paying 100 Kč ($5).
A birth number is not only one’s birth date; it is also a privileged key to a wide set of sensitive personal data, said Oldřich Kužílek, an expert on free access to information and privacy protection issues. Since so many databases feature birth numbers as key identifiers, hackers can gather a relatively wide set of valuable information from them, Kužílek said.
“Through the birth number, you can screen for additional personal data,” Kužílek said.
These days, commercial companies may collect and store birth numbers only with prior consent. Some state authorities are still allowed to ask for them and store them without approval, however.
Seeking safer codes
Making birth numbers easily accessible in state registers is a “big flaw” in Czech legislation, Kužílek said.
But it’s not expected to change anytime soon.
The Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping and Cadastre (ČÚZK), the author of two real estate law amendments, believes identification has to be based on birth numbers, for example.
“The birth number secures unique and unmistakable identification. There’s no alternative identifier ensuring unambiguous personal identification,” said Petr Baudyš from the ČÚZK legislation department. “Making birth numbers invisible in the cadastre would significantly destabilize the real estate market.”
A person subject to a property execution might be easily mistaken for another person with the same name if birth numbers weren’t used, Baudyš said.
Officials at the Justice Ministry, which is in charge of the business register, take a similar stance.
“Like the present provision, the newly prepared Commercial Code is to be based on the birth number or birth date if a birth number is not assigned,” said Justice Ministry spokeswoman Zuzana Kuncová.

Victor Velek can be reached at vvelek@praguepost.com


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