Scotland to vote on new law governing biometrics
The Scottish parliament is to vote on a new law that would bring in greater regulation of the storage of biometric data such as DNA and fingerprints by police.
MSPs will hear the Scottish Biometrics Commissioner Bill get its third reading today (March 10th 2020), BBC News reports.
Among its requirements will be the appointment of an independent, security-cleared commissioner to ensure police investigations are lawful and ethical.
It will also incorporate rules on how forces retain and eventually dispose of sensitive data such as facial recognition images.
Up to now, there has been no general code of practice covering biometric data for police and justice agencies, but justice secretary Humza Yousaf said this needs to change.
"What we want to do is to give the public reassurance that although the police will continue to use the latest technology to investigate crime, the ethical considerations will also be in the forefront of our minds," he told the news provider.
Scotland has been focusing heavily on biometrics and had planned to introduce crowd scanning technology at public events by 2026, but this was recently postponed due to concerns over accuracy.