People's Party assures Laser ID data safety and denies breaching DOPA orders

Statement by the People's Party regarding the request for Laser ID in the identity verification process for party membership application

1. The People's Party confirms that the party has proceeded with every step regarding the Laser ID matter strictly in accordance with the law in all respects, taking into account the protection of citizens' rights and the security of their personal data.

2. Political parties must design a strict party membership application process to prevent identity theft.

In accepting membership applications, all political parties have a legal duty to verify that the person applying for membership possesses the complete and correct legal qualifications, and applies personally without identity theft by using another person's national ID number.

Although there are general standards specifying the minimum data a political party must collect and submit (such as name, surname, address, postal code, membership number, etc.), a political party can request additional information to make the identity verification of prospective members stricter.

3. Requesting to verify the Laser ID, or the code on the back of the national ID card, is a widely used form of identity verification and is not against the law, as the party has clearly requested consent from the citizens filling out the information.

Currently, Laser ID verification is used in the identity verification process for many transactions, especially those requiring strict accuracy (such as financial transactions via various Mobile Banking applications).

Therefore, even though the law does not compel every party to use Laser ID verification in the identity verification process, any party choosing to request a member applicant's Laser ID to make the process stricter is permissible and does not violate any laws (such as the PDPA), as long as consent is obtained from the data subject. This is the same as requesting other personal information (such as name, address, email, phone number, etc.), which does not require permission from the Department of Provincial Administration (DOPA) because it is a mutual agreement between the citizen owning the personal data and the requester (the party).

4. The permission required from the DOPA is not permission to "request the Laser ID from member applicants," but rather permission to "use the member applicant's Laser ID to verify its accuracy against the DOPA's database."

If any political party wishes to use the Laser ID to verify the identity of a party member applicant, the political party must request permission to "link" data with the system of the DOPA.

Once fully connected, the system will send the Laser ID information of the prospective member to be verified against the DOPA's system. The Department's system will then send data back to the party indicating whether it is "correct" or "incorrect." The party will not record the Laser ID information of the prospective member in any way.

5. The People's Party has already proceeded to request permission to link data with the DOPA, leaving only a few steps before completion. / Once completed, the entire process will be the same as that used during the time of the Move Forward Party.

Before their dissolutions, the former Future Forward Party and the Move Forward Party had been fully authorised to connect with the DOPA's system.

Following the dissolution of the Move Forward Party, the People's Party proceeded to request authorisation to connect to the new system. Authorisation has already been granted for the program to read data from the Multipurpose National Identity Card (Smart Card) and the Digital Identity Verification and Authentication System (DOPA Digital ID). Only the authorisation step to use the Web Service for National ID Card Status Verification via API remains before it is fully complete.

6. The People's Party, as well as the former Future Forward Party and Move Forward Party, have never "recorded" or stored the public's Laser ID data. The party merely acts as a "pass-through" for sending data to be checked against the information in the DOPA's system.

Since the beginning of requesting Laser IDs from member applicants, from the time of the former Future Forward Party and the former Move Forward Party, up to the People's Party, the party has never "recorded" the public's Laser ID data, acting solely as a pass-through to forward data for accuracy verification against the DOPA's data.

Even during the current period, when the connection with the DOPA's system is not yet fully complete, which prevents the verification of the Laser IDs entered by the public, the People's Party confirms that there is no "recording" of the public's Laser ID data for any purpose.

Furthermore, the DOPA has never issued an order prohibiting the People's Party regarding the Laser ID. Therefore, the People's Party has absolutely not committed any act that would violate administrative orders or laws, contrary to false accusations.

7. The People's Party humbly accepts the objections and concerns of the public. Therefore, the requirement to fill in the Laser ID has been temporarily removed from the membership application process until full authorisation to link data with the DOPA is received.

Currently, the party has adjusted the membership application webpage so that filling in the Laser ID is no longer required until authorisation is granted to connect with the system regarding the Web Service for National ID Card Status Verification via API (which is the final step of data linkage). This is expected to take a short amount of time.