Opinion
My work wants my biometric data. Am I right to feel uncomfortable?
Jonathan Rivett
Freelance writerI work for a large institution that is undertaking a major project. It involves the use of my biometric data — both facial recognition and my thumbprint — on my issued devices. Despite IT’s assurances about encryption and data cleansing, I cannot get comfortable with this.
Is it possible that the provision of my biometric data could basically become a condition of my continued employment?
Given the problem of identity theft in the electronic age, and of the growing sophistication of bad digital actors, I sympathise with your discomfort.Credit: John Shakespeare
I asked Professor Joellen Riley Munton from the Faculty of Law at the University of Technology Sydney about your question. She told me that there was a case brought to the Fair Work Commission in 2019 in which an employee successfully objected to the use of his biometric data as a condition of his employment.
“The employer had a policy requiring staff to use a digital fingerprint scanner as a means of gaining access to premises. The employee objected to giving their fingerprints and was dismissed,” Munton explained.
The employee went to the Fair Work Commission and, after an appeal, the commission found that he was unfairly dismissed.
“The policy was held not to be lawful. The employer could use other methods of access, and didn’t really need to collect biometric data. This was considered unnecessarily intrusive on [the employee’s] personal autonomy and privacy.”
How could such a finding apply to your case? Well, it may not. Munton said that because this wasn’t a finding of a court of law, it “doesn’t create a binding legal precedent”. It does, however, “indicate the approach that the FWC will take to these issues”.
“I guess the issue for your correspondent is whether it is strictly necessary for the employer to have this kind of identification data. Are there other ways of ensuring that the right person is using their devices?” Munton said.
As an example, she said, if you worked for a top secret military facility, your employers might have an easier time arguing there was no viable alternative. In other organisations, fields or disciplines, though, it might be possible to introduce an authorisation protocol that didn’t involve biometric information while still offering a sufficient level of security.
At the risk of stating the obvious, without all the details it’s really difficult to say whether handing over your biometric data will ever become a condition of your employment. In a hypothetical future where your employer does institute such a policy, it’s also difficult to speculate on the result of any formal objection you make because, as Munton said, every case “turns on its own facts”.
As the 2019 Fair Work Commission case shows, though, such a policy isn’t outside the realm of possibility. And concerns such as yours aren’t out of the ordinary.
Given the problem of identity theft in the electronic age, and of the growing sophistication of bad digital actors, I sympathise with your discomfort.
Neither Work Therapy nor the experts we speak with offer specific legal advice – but if I were to offer broader counsel, it would be to hold onto your reservations until you have strong evidence that under any new (and unavoidable) regime, your data would be thoroughly safe.
Send your questions to Work Therapy by emailing jonathan@theinkbureau.com.au
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