This link has been bookmarked by 3 people . It was first bookmarked on 03 Feb 2008, by tony curzon price.
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03 Feb 08
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Bruno, the card is a red herring. The meat in this meal is the database. And that is more than a picture and a name. Read the document: it will have my name, photo, all ten fingerprints, other unspecified biometric data, financial details, personal specifics, addresses, everything. Every last piece of data they can wring out of me, they want it all in one place.
And not only the 'authority' of the government can demand the card, and the database access it permits. Banks, employers, even retailers will, the document suggests, be able to ask for your ID card or refuse your account / employment / sale.
Constitution forbids the exchange of information between government departments? Maybe over there, but even if we in Britain had a written constitution, which we don't, I don't think for a second that that would stop the sharing of information. Our government encourages it, eg: UK Government Knowledge Network.
Privacy is its own end, and even that is not the sum total of this issue: The imposition and mandating of an ID card is the government stating that without their permission, I am nothing.
Which, I might add, I am not.
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The Portuguese card sounds sensible, if it gives you common credentials to access different, separate databases, to which you as a citizen have access. Likewise, if the Danish system has audit, oversight and limitation, it could be seen as sensible in modern society.
However, the breadth and depth of information to be gathered and shared among public and private bodies without oversight is much greater in the proposed UK system.
Whether or not you accept the potential benefit of some kind of national ID scheme, the problem is that *this* scheme does expose the individual to risk of fraud, erroneous data entry and its consequences, as well as giving the state enormous potential for data-mining over the individual.
I don't have anything to hide, but that doesn't mean I think a government should pwn my identity.
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The real problem here is´nt really the ID. The problem here is that brits does´nt seem to trust their government. Or more accurately their DB system.
And, yes, the Spanish ID didnt prevent the Madrid bombings BUT thanks to it we tracked all the terrorist down in less than 24 hours, and they are in jail now. Can the UK or the USA argue with that?
National ID is just a matter of TRUST. All of us leave information on every web we visit, on every shilling we move on our bank accounts, on every call we do with our mobile phones. -
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Ben Franklin.
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But the real problem I have, along with most of the opponents of the scheme, is with the database. People have pointed out that most of the information they're after is already on other databases (not my DNA or fingerprints though). True, my bank has my bank details, the NHS has my medical records, My university has my academic record. However, in order to get a complete picture of me you would have to break into dozens of separate databases. Pooling it together just makes it so much easier. Not to mention the fact that my bank only lets a few privileged individuals have access to my bank details. Under the proposals everyone you showed your ID to would have access to this database (I read somewhere the government planned this to include 44,000 private companies). Even if the terminals were designed to prevent anyone copying this information, readers of boingboing should be well aware no DRM works. with such widespread access it is inevitable someone would find a way of skimming this information.
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As for the thought that police would use the DNA or fingerprint data on "fishing expeditions", it is really scary. The odds of a DNA test being wrong are often given as one in 10 million. Pretty low odds, especially if there is other evidence linking you to the crime. There are, however, 60 million people in the UK. You would therefore expect 6 false positives each time you trawl through the database. What happens when yours is the only DNA to match? What if your photo is splashed all over the front page of the News of The World as a "pervert"? Even if you were never charged it could still ruin your life. Think Robert Muirat, it doesn't matter if he took Madelaine or not, he will forever be haunted by the accusations (not to mention that NOTW readers have in the past assaulted paediatricians as "peados")
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31 Jan 08
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29 Jan 08
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