There’s no digital ID without data protection: Mauritius privacy chief
There’s no digital ID without data protection: Mauritius privacy chief
Publish Date: 2026-05-27 10:01:00
Source Domain: www.biometricupdate.com
Drudeisha Madhub, the Data Protection Commissioner of Mauritius, has emphasized that technologies like digital identity systems cannot operate in a legal vacuum without strong and adaptable data protection safeguards for citizens.
The comments come as governments across Africa accelerate digital identity and digital public infrastructure (DPI) deployments. While much of the focus has been on enrollment, interoperability and service delivery, Madhub argues that privacy, cybersecurity and governance must be treated as foundational components of digital identity infrastructure rather than compliance afterthoughts.
In an interview with Biometric Update during the ID4Africa 2026 AGM in Abidjan, Madhub, who is also President of the Francophone Association of Data Protection Authorities, spoke about her country’s data protection strides as one of the pioneers in Africa, and why African governments must treat data protection as a digital ID imperative.
“The simplest way to make people convinced about the importance of data protection is just to tell them that if you need [digital ID] technology, then you also need data protection. You also need cybersecurity. It’s like two sides of the same coin,” she said.
“You cannot have technology without data protection and cybersecurity. This is because if you operate technology in a legal vacuum and in a non-protection side, then you’re obviously putting the lives of your people at stake. Data represents us, it is us. You’re putting us at stake if you do not have the right data protection safeguards,” Madhub, who has more than 20 years as a data governance expert, underscored.
She went on that it doesn’t just suffice to have the laws, but it’s necessary for countries to explore how they can actually embed data protection into the technologies they deploy, such as through privacy by design.
“We can register controllers and processors. We can make them fill in forms. We probably can do some…
