A government database collects information for various reasons, including climate monitoring, securities law compliance, geological surveys, patent applications and grants, surveillance, national security, border control, law enforcement, public health, voter registration, vehicle registration, social security, and statistics.
Various government bodies maintain databases about citizens and residents of the United Kingdom.
Under the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, legal provisions exist that control and restrict the collection, storage, retention, and use of information in government databases.
[61] With a UID from the Unique Identification Authority of India being given to every Indian from February 2011, the government would be able track people in real time.
A national population registry of all citizens will be established by the 2011 census, during which fingerprints and iris scans would be taken along with GPS records of each household.