Driver's licence safe says Govt

By Chris Daniels

transport reporter

High-tech security features on new driver's licences will not store any information about the owner, say Government officials.

The new licences, which the Government will issue to all drivers from next month, include a photograph and signature of the holder.

They will also have a barcode, containing the driver's licence number, the licence card number, and a two-digit quality-control number.

Drivers can choose whether they want their home address printed on the licence.

Transport officials and Transport Minister Maurice Williamson have said the licences are not "smart cards" and do not contain any coded or secret information about the holder.

Storing the photographs and signatures of licence holders in an electronic database has been criticised by privacy and civil liberties lobbyists, concerned at the potential for misuse.

Land Transport Safety Authority spokeswoman Robyn Johnstone said security features of the new licence included a hologram and a special coating that stopped them from being photocopied or scanned.

She said there were numerous other covert security features that would not be made public, none of which would include any information about the holder.

Wayne King, business development manager for Card Testing International, said the Government had gone to great lengths to make sure the new cards were not machine readable. This meant that all a counterfeiter had to do was fool the eye.

The cards would probably have a message or logo, similar to the watermark on a banknote, printed or embossed into them that could be seen only in certain light at a particular angle.

Police officers would obviously know how to look for this feature when checking a licence.

Mr King said he expected problems with the durability of the new licences.

"All the banks have to re-issue the cards every two to four years - they wear out," he said. "I wonder whether we are capable of making the first batch last for 10 years."

By not including a magnetic strip, such as that used on credit and bank cards, the Government was buying dated technology, which would be made redundant before the 10-year licence expired, he said.

A spokesman for democracy watchdog group Stand Up New Zealand, Neal King, said the licences would undoubtedly be copied. Counterfeit credit cards, with holograms and security features included, were often made in China, he said.

While the licences could be forged, the security of the database containing every driver's personal details was more important.

Any transport minister could sell the entire database to private owners, without needing the consent of Parliament, he said.