KOFI ANOKYE OWUSU-DARKO (BLOG 1)

INTRODUCTION Information flow between government and its citizens was deemed by Rt Hon Jack Straw (a UK MP) to not only empower the people but to promote a “vigorous and robust democracy”.   The Right to Information Act, 2019   except under certain exemptions is intended to give the public the “right to know” the type of information held by public bodies. It is an attempt for “greater transparency, accountability and engagement” in government business and should “transform the culture of Government from one of secrecy to one of openness ” . In the UK for example, it led to the resignation by Michael Burgess as coroner for the late lady Diana’s inquest; it led to the disclosure of detailed breakdown of MPs travel expenses after an initial plan by ministers to exempt such disclosure; it led to World Development Movement (WDM) getting information relating to the biggest carbon dioxide polluters in the UK which before the Act would not have been readily available. There is the argu

Introduction As the world keeps on evolving especially with the age of technological advancement, there is the need for the citizenry to become well-informed about this dynamism in all aspects of their affairs particularly when it comes to matters of biometric database. Biometric databases generally refers to storing digitized templates of biological information unique to an individual such as retina or iris, fingerprints, voice prints, and of face geometry which is matched with what is produced when a person physically presents herself as a reader.   There are basically two ways of storing such digitized templates, on a card which is under the control of owner (data subject) and centralized which is under the control of the one collecting the information (data controller).   Although the benefit of biometric database is unquestionable, there is the downside of abuse of the database. Once it is set up, there can be uses for it without boundaries. The functionality of th