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Now that the ID Cards Act has received Royal Assent - Our World Our Say's proposal is to tell the Government that we do not need the imposition of ID cards and the accompanying National Identification Register by declaring our neighbourhoods and homes -
"ID Card Free Zones"
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ID Card Free Zone News
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03/04/2008 |
In order to fake a fingerprint, one needs an original first. Latent fingerprints are nothing but fat and sweat on touched items. Thus to retrieve someone elses fingerprint (in this case the fingerprint you want to forge) one should rely on well tested forensic research methods. Which is what's to be explained here.
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Author : |
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03/04/2008 |
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Has the government got the business case for ID cards right? |
In asking whether the government has got the business case for ID cards right, we need to understand precisely what that business case is. Plenty has been written on how the government has been changing its mind on what benefits the ID cards provide since the inception of the programme. If we look at the speech made by the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to Demos on the 6th of March 2008 giving an update on the identity card scheme, the justifications are broadly split into two areas.
Firstly, there are a number of preventative measures which have been previously touted as reasons for the scheme's implementation: illegal immigration, illegal working, benefit fraud; fighting terrorism. Secondly, and what seems to be particularly emphasised this time round, is the perceived “added convenience" to the citizen.
This change of tack would appear to tie in directly with the change of the roll-out plans by the government. In these revised plans only foreign nationals and those working in “sensitive" positions will, initially, be required to register. UK nationals will then be “encouraged" to register from 2010, and all new passport details entered on the National Identity Register from 2011/12.
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03/04/2008 |
The government is to scrap its controversial £30 voluntary ID card system in favour of having every child born in the UK implanted at birth with a free radio frequency-based (RFID) identity marker.
The plan is part of a £100bn 10-year project to put the UK at the forefront of post-internet information technology. It will lead to new grid-based network technology, new information processing and storage systems for "pervasive computing", and new massively parallel programming techniques, the government said.
Children born to cabinet members from next year would be the first to receive the implants. These will guarantee their access to privileged government facilities and services.
Announcing the scheme a government spokeswoman said it would return Britain to its rightful place as the world's IT technology leader, as it was during the Second World War. It had swapped many of the information theory and technology secrets developed by the code breakers at Bletchley Park for butter and guns from America, and this had let the US gain the lead, she said.
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Author : Ian Grant |
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03/04/2008 |
Some day my prints will come
A group of German hackers has threatened to publish Chancellor Angela Merkel's fingerprints.
The move is part of a campaign against the German government's plan to stick biometric data in new passports.
The Chaos Computer Club (CCC) has already published Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble's fingerprints in its magazine
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Author : Nick Farrell |
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03/04/2008 |
Children in care should get school photos and passports, Ministers said yesterday, as they launched plans designed to give thousands of vulnerable children in care a happy and healthy childhood. Whether this will mean biometric ID cards be default for this vulnerable group remains to be seen.
Biometric IDs for disabled children of those with special educational needs are often highly difficult to generate and use, for numerous complex reasons - and this area is highly sensitive.
The ideas were outlined by Kevin Brennan and Beverley Hughes, as they joined the Local Government Association and Association of Directors of Children's Services to launch Care Matters: Time to Deliver, a practical guide for local partners on how to improve the lives of children in care.
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03/04/2008 |
Only one in 10 adults trusts the government with their personal information, but family, banks and employers are more trusted than friends, according to a survey.
The online survey of 1,048 UK adults, commissioned by Data Encryption Systems (DES), showed that three-quarters of Britons would provide contact details, date of birth, marital status, health information and children's details to anyone who asks, but only one in 10 adults trusted the government with their personal information, and even fewer (9%) would trust an online retailer.
Even so, 41% said they favoured ID cards, 40% were against and 19% were undecided. Of those who were against or undecided about ID cards, 93% said it was because the government had a poor track record of looking after citizens' data. Almost as many (87%) thought the government lacked competence with personal data security, and 69% thought it had a poor regard for citizens' privacy.
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Author : Ian Grant |
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03/04/2008 |
The growing use of biometrics to identify individuals is “insecure and in need of immediate attention," according to an IT systems company.
Fujitsu Siemens said biometrics is increasingly being used in the business world to verify whether individuals really are who they say. By 2013, Fujitsu Siemens predicts biometric identity technology will be so widespread in the private sector that the number of people included would rival that of the proposed national ID schemes.
Within five years, 95 percent of the UK population will be identifiable through biometrics and other means.
But the tracking and monitoring of people could be a risk if security controls were not tightened up, the IT company said.
From a security perspective, we have already seen that criminals can create a number of different personae for themselves and more methods of identification means more openings for them. Whether it's issued by a company or a government, once an individual can associate their biometric characteristics with an identity, they effectively own that identity," said David Pritchard, senior technology analyst.
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03/04/2008 |
Repeated breaches of data protection laws by government departments raise huge question marks over plans for the national identity register required for ID cards and biometric passport, an influential parliamentary human rights watchdog has warned.
MPs and peers on the Lords and Commons Joint Committee on Human Rights said repeated losses of personal information by departments had increased their concern, and announced they " intend to take a close interest in the government's detailed proposals for the national identity register as and when they emerge."
In a hard-hitting report the committee insisted the privacy of personal data is guaranteed under the European Convention on Human Rights as well as the Data Protection Act. The report demands that detailed rules must in future be written in to all relevant primary legislation to “help ensure that data protection becomes a primary concern of managers and frontline staff in the public sector.
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03/04/2008 |
A critical report today should be the last nail in the coffin of the government's proposed ID cards, said Jenny Willott, Welsh Liberal Democrat MP for Cardiff Central.
The report by the Joint Committee on Human Rights, comes as details, released through the Freedom of Information Act revealed how many of those departments lack basic systems to comply with the Data Protection Act.
A survey of 14 departments by the British Computer Society published today shower that none of them had statistics of how many errors were on their database, nor had a budget to correct them.
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03/04/2008 |
Home Office slows ID card rollout as independent Treasury study recommends fast implementation
The government's failure to take on board the recommendations of independent reports on the national identity card scheme may lead to faults and extra cost, warn experts.
Last week, home secretary Jacqui Smith announced plans for a slower rollout of the £5.4bn ID cards programme, with the government retaining control of the national identity register.
But in a Treasury-commissioned report, also released last week, former HBOS chief executive Sir James Crosby recommends a fundamentally different, consumer-led approach.
Our identity belongs to us, no one else," said Crosby. The potential of any mass ID system such as ID cards lies in the extent to which it is created, by consumers for consumers."
There are many reasons why the government may have ignored the Crosby report which has been delayed by almost a year and was released through the Treasury web site said Eric Woods, analyst at Ovum.
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Author : Tom Young |
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03/04/2008 |
Who are the most effective campaigners against ID cards? The government of course:
According to MoD figures released in a Commons written answer, 4,433 ID cards disappeared in 2006 and a further 6,812 went missing last year. Tory defence spokesman Gerald Howarth said: “This is another example of the Government's scandalous disregard for the security of our citizens and yet another reason why the public has no confidence in the Government's ID card plans for the rest of the population.
Liberal Democrat defence spokesman Nick Harvey said the figures were “just extraordinary" and made a mockery of the security procedures at military facilities. “This shows the inherent frailty of ID card schemes and is yet another proof that schemes, such as the ID card database, simply won't improve our security against terrorism," he said."
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03/04/2008 |
Support for the UK's national ID card programme continues to plummet, with one quarter of people saying they are strongly opposed to the scheme.
According to an ICM poll, 25 percent of those surveyed thought it was a "very bad" idea - up from 17 percent in September last year.
Opponents of the ID card scheme said the survey of just over 1,000 people, commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, showed the government would be "unable to impose" the cards on the population.
But, while 50 percent said the cards were a bad idea in the ICM poll, 47 percent of those questioned still thought they were a good idea. And 12 percent of that group thought they were a "very good" idea.
Phil Booth, national co-ordinator with pressure group No2ID, said: "It shows that more people don't want ID cards than do, as is clearly the case across the population."
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Author : Nick Heath |
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03/04/2008 |
The pretence of oversight has been ripped aside by the Khan bugging affair: the security apparat has become a law unto itself
The machine is out of control. Personal surveillance in Britain is so extensive that no democratic oversight is remotely plausible. Some 800 organisations, including the police, the revenue, local and central government, demanded (and almost always got) 253,000 intrusions on citizen privacy in the last recorded year, 2006. This is way beyond that of any other country in the free world.
The Sadiq Khan affair has killed stone dead the thesis, beloved of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, that any accretion of power to the state is sustainable because ministers are in control. Whether this applies to phone tapping, bugging devices, ID cards, NHS records, childcare computer systems, video surveillance or detention without trial, it is simply a lie. Nobody can control this torrent of intrusion. Nobody can oversee a burst dam.
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Author : Simon Jenkins |
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03/04/2008 |
The future of the UK's identity card scheme was thrown into further confusion last night after it emerged that the Home Office is looking to scrap one of its key components - a national register of fingerprints.
Successive Home Office ministers have said fingerprinting will be a vital weapon in combating identity fraud and terrorism. But a confidential document produced by the Home Office Identity and Passport Service which has been obtained by The Observer states: 'We should test for each group we enrol whether the cost of fingerprints is justified by the use to which they will be put.'
The implication that the scheme may prove too costly was immediately seized upon as proof of the government's waning enthusiasm. The use of iris scans has already been quietly dropped.
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Author : Jamie Doward |
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03/04/2008 |
Students will be "blackmailed" into holding identity cards in order to apply for student loans, the Tories have warned.
According to Home Office documents leaked to the Conservative party last night, those applying for student loans will be forced to hold identity cards to get the funding from 2010.
Anyone aged 16 or over will be expected to obtain a card - costing up to £100 - to open a bank account or apply for a student loan.
The document says: "We should issue ID cards to young people to assist them as they open their first bank account, take out a student loan, etc."
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Author : Anthea Lipsett |
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03/04/2008 |
The rollout of compulsory national ID cards for British citizens looks likely to be delayed until after the next election, casting doubt over the future of the scheme.
According to a strategy paper marked "restricted" and leaked to David Davis, the shadow home secretary, the government is planning to roll out the second phase of its ID card scheme in 2012, two years later than planned.
A Home Office action plan on ID cards from two years ago set 2010 as a key milestone, when it would "issue significant volumes of ID cards alongside British passports".
The setback will fuel the view among opposition politicians that the scandal surrounding the government's recent security breaches and loss of personal data could derail the ID card programme altogether.
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Author : |
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03/04/2008 |
· PM stresses it will be for parliament to decide
· He may be seeking wriggle room on issue, says Vaz
Senior Labour MPs yesterday seized on comments by Gordon Brown to suggest that he intends to shelve a compulsory universal identity card scheme. They interpreted his remarks at prime minister's questions as a sign that he is cooling towards a compulsory scheme and may instead settle for a scheme that applies to foreign nationals.
The prime minister's spokesman insisted that the government's policy and timetable on ID cards remained unchanged, after Brown had stressed that that it would be "for parliament to decide" on a compulsory scheme.
MPs have detected a less enthusiastic tone in Brown's remarks on ID cards since the recent government data losses.
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Author : Patrick Wintour and Will Woodward |
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03/04/2008 |
David Cameron has tonight written to Gordon Brown demanding clarification over whether identity cards will be compulsory.
The Conservative leader stepped up pressure on the prime minister following ill-tempered exchanges between the two during parliamentary question time.
As the two leaders clashed on the issue, Brown appeared to contradict himself over whether ID cards would be compulsory.
In a letter to the prime minister, David Cameron has asked him to clarify his position.
He writes: "Following our exchange at prime minister's questions today, I am writing to ask for an important clarification.
"Anyone watching will have been left in considerable doubt about whether you personally support compulsory ID cards and will recommend this approach to the House of Commons.
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Author : Deborah Summers |
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03/04/2008 |
As he looked back on a year that was going so right until it went horribly wrong, the prime minister yesterday received unsolicited advice from the new Liberal Democrat leader about how to ensure 2008 turns out more happily. Scrap ID cards, Nick Clegg urged. He objects to the cards on fundamental grounds, claiming he would rather go to jail than carry what he sees as a pernicious piece of plastic. Such talk may be grandstanding: it is doubtful that the plans would see refuseniks locked up. But it is not necessary to be a would-be outlaw or an extreme libertarian to appreciate that giving up ID cards is one new year resolution that Gordon Brown should make.
As recently as autumn, the prime minister stated publicly, and with some credibility, that he could win an election on grounds of competence. A lot has happened since - the decision to duck that election, secret donations and financial chaos all helped change the mood. But Mr Brown's fall from grace was most savagely encapsulated by Mr Clegg's temporary predecessor, Vincent Cable, who in late November spoke of the PM's "remarkable transformation from Stalin to Mr Bean". The immediate issue shattering the sense of competence was the revenue's loss of the addresses and bank details of millions of parents. In the weeks that followed, it emerged the authorities had also mislaid personal information about 3 million learner drivers and hundreds of thousands of NHS patients. Against this backdrop ministers might be expected to develop an allergic reaction to new databases. Instead, they are pushing ahead with a national register linked to the cards - an unprecedentedly vast store of private information, with commensurate opportunities for blundering and fraud.
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Author : |
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03/04/2008 |
I have never been convinced by Francis Bacon's aphorism: “knowledge itself is power". Presumably I am gaining more knowledge as I get older. Yet I feel more wimpish, less in charge of my own life or the lives of others, with each passing year. Are librarians powerful? Are academics? Are those minicab drivers or retired schoolteachers who always seem to do well on TV quiz shows?
No, knowledge itself is not power. What helps people to acquire and retain power - whether in politics, business or personal relationships - are secrets. The powerful are paranoid about keeping their own. They are cunning about extracting other people's. And they are ruthless about using secrets thus acquired without scruple or hesitation.
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Author : Richard Morrison |
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03/04/2008 |
The Information Commissioner may have been publicising Friday 28th September as international Your Right To Know Day (.pdf), but another Anniverseray has now been reached:
It is now over 1000 days since our original Freedom of Information Act request was submitted, initially to both the Office of Government Commerce and to the Home Office, for the to pre-Stage Zero and the actual Stage Zero Gateway review reports, on the Home Office's Identity Cards Programme.
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Author : |
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23/01/2008 |
Gordon Brown's plans for identity cards were dealt a blow last night after leaked documents revealed the government plans to delay a national roll out of the scheme for at least two years.
Despite repeated assurances that the controversial scheme is on track, Home Office documents show that the cards will only be issued to UK citizens from 2012 two years later than stated.
The cards were due to be issued to people renewing their passports from 2010 under plans set out two years ago.
They will not be compulsory for British citizens until 2015.
The revelation from documents relating to the "delivery strategy" will prove embarrassing for the Prime Minister, whose support for them has been questioned by opponents.
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Author : Gerri Peev |
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23/01/2008 |
Fresh doubts have arisen over the government's controversial identity cards programme after it emerged that Whitehall is considering a delay in the main roll-out to British citizens.
The setback will fuel a growing belief among both Labour and opposition MPs that recent scandals surrounding the loss of personal data held by the government, continuing problems with IT programmes in Whitehall and doubts over the cost of the ID cards scheme itself are forcing Gordon Brown to delay or scrap it altogether.
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Author : Jimmy Burns |
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23/01/2008 |
Plans for a wider roll-out of identity cards to British nationals appear to have been delayed for two years.
Foreign nationals will have ID cards this year and it was intended to introduce them in "significant volumes" for UK citizens from 2010.
But documents leaked to the Tories suggest it has been put back to 2012.
The Tories say the ID card scheme is "in the intensive care ward" but the government said the plan had always been to introduce them "incrementally".
The timetable for ID cards to start being given to UK citizens over 16 has already slipped and the first ones are not expected to start being issued until next year.
From January 2010 everyone getting a passport will have to get an identity card as well, according to existing plans.
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Author : |
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23/01/2008 |
The record of lost data of the past few years should be a warning to us all: our personal details are safe in nobody's hands
Here's an easy question. What do the following have in common - people on housing benefit, people getting child benefit, people wanting to be RAF pilots or Royal Marines, people in hospital and people learning to drive? The answer is that they have all had their personal details lost through government incompetence. And here's another question. With the national database for ID cards looming, just how much do you trust the government to keep your identity details safe?
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Author : Jackie Ashley |
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23/01/2008 |
· Stolen files not encrypted, Browne tells Commons
· Whitehall issues staff ban on movement of data
The Ministry of Defence is investigating the reported loss of 69 laptops and seven personal computers over the past year, officials revealed yesterday, as Whitehall staff were banned from removing laptops containing sensitive data from their offices.
The extent of the lack of security surrounding MoD computers containing un-encrypted information emerged as Des Browne, the defence secretary, announced an inquiry into the latest theft: a laptop containing information on 600,000 people - recruits and those who had expressed an interest in joining the armed forces - which was stolen from a naval officer's car earlier this month.
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Author : Richard Norton-Taylor |
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23/01/2008 |
Ten years' supply of applicants swiped from car
Personal details of the 600,000 people who have applied to join the armed forces over the last ten years were stolen with an MoD laptop earlier this month, it was admitted late on Friday. The computer was stolen from the car of a junior naval officer, which was parked outside his house overnight in Edgbaston, Birmingham.
It isn't yet clear whether or not the data was encrypted or the laptop password-protected, but the data is said to consist of two separate databases, one going back to the late 90s. Included are details of 150,000 serving personnel, and bank details for 3,500 of them. Aside from these, the databases include names and addresses, passport details and national insurance and NHS numbers for serving personnel and potential recruits.
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Author : John Lettice |
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23/01/2008 |
Byrne's 'challenging targets' challenge belief
Immigration minister Liam Byrne has concealed what looks like further ID card slippage and set himself a remarkably unchallenging series of immigration and border control targets in a "ten point plan" for 2008. Humorously described by the Home Office as "challenging", the plan consists largely of low targets, targets already achieved, and harder targets lobbed off into the middle distance.
Check out the roadmap. Down at the bottom it tells us that Byrne won't start issuing immigrant ID cards until the second week in November (330 days, count them), won't start counting foreign nationals in and out of the country until the year end, and won't hit the target of processing 60 per cent of asylum claims within six months until the end of the year either.
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Author : John Lettice |
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23/01/2008 |
Americans seek international database to carry iris, palm and finger prints
Senior British police officials are talking to the FBI about an international database to hunt for major criminals and terrorists.
The US-initiated programme, "Server in the Sky", would take cooperation between the police forces way beyond the current faxing of fingerprints across the Atlantic. Allies in the "war against terror" - the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand - have formed a working group, the International Information Consortium, to plan their strategy.
Biometric measurements, irises or palm prints as well as fingerprints, and other personal information are likely to be exchanged across the network. One section will feature the world's most wanted suspects. The database could hold details of millions of criminals and suspects.
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Author : Owen Bowcott |
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23/01/2008 |
· PM stresses it will be for parliament to decide
· He may be seeking wriggle room on issue, says Vaz
Senior Labour MPs yesterday seized on comments by Gordon Brown to suggest that he intends to shelve a compulsory universal identity card scheme. They interpreted his remarks at prime minister's questions as a sign that he is cooling towards a compulsory scheme and may instead settle for a scheme that applies to foreign nationals.
The prime minister's spokesman insisted that the government's policy and timetable on ID cards remained unchanged, after Brown had stressed that that it would be "for parliament to decide" on a compulsory scheme.
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Author : Patrick Wintour and Will Woodward |
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23/01/2008 |
Gordon Brown has not changed his mind on identity cards despite speculation he is preparing for a U-turn, a home office minister has told the BBC.
Meg Hillier said the PM had "made it very clear" he supported the scheme.
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Author : |
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23/01/2008 |
David Cameron has tonight written to Gordon Brown demanding clarification over whether identity cards will be compulsory.
The Conservative leader stepped up pressure on the prime minister following ill-tempered exchanges between the two during parliamentary question time.
As the two leaders clashed on the issue, Brown appeared to contradict himself over whether ID cards would be compulsory.
In a letter to the prime minister, David Cameron has asked him to clarify his position.
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Author : Deborah Summers |
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23/01/2008 |
Along with several colleagues I have been worried by the government's emphasis over the last week on biometrics as a "solution" to data breaches such as those from HM Revenue & Customs. We wrote this morning to Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights to point out these problems as follows
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Author : Dr Ian Brown |
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23/01/2008 |
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Biometrics - Labour Government are still clueless about the technology |
Several eminent academics who do actually know about information security, cryptography, software engineering etc.. have written a letter, published by one of the signatories Dr. Ian Brown on his Blogzilla blog.
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Author : |
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23/01/2008 |
Part 2 of the edited transcript of the Observer's interview with Gordon Brown
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Author : John Mulholland and Nicholas Watt |
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23/01/2008 |
Nick Clegg has pledged to campaign to "bring down the identity cards scheme" in the next 12 months.
The new Liberal Democrat leader used his New Year message on Monday to say that his party would oppose "unwanted intrusions" in people's lives.
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Author : |
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23/01/2008 |
As he looked back on a year that was going so right until it went horribly wrong, the prime minister yesterday received unsolicited advice from the new Liberal Democrat leader about how to ensure 2008 turns out more happily. Scrap ID cards, Nick Clegg urged. He objects to the cards on fundamental grounds, claiming he would rather go to jail than carry what he sees as a pernicious piece of plastic. Such talk may be grandstanding: it is doubtful that the plans would see refuseniks locked up. But it is not necessary to be a would-be outlaw or an extreme libertarian to appreciate that giving up ID cards is one new year resolution that Gordon Brown should make.
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Author : |
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23/01/2008 |
The data crisis has taken a new twist, as nine NHS trusts admitted losing personal information of patients.
Hundreds of thousands of patients could be affected, according to a newspaper report.
The news comes in the wake of the loss of 25 million child benefit claimants' details on two discs belonging to HM Revenue and Customs, as well as three million motorists' details in Iowa.
The Department of Health says that patients have been informed and there is no evidence that sensitive data has fallen in to the wrong hands.
While the DoH has said that the data losses were being dealt with individually by the relevant trusts and that it therefore did not have details of how many patients' records were lost, one trust - City and Hackney Primary Care Trust, in east London - has reportedly lost the details of 160,000 children, according to a story in the Sunday Mirror.
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Author : Tom Chivers |
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23/01/2008 |
Newly elected Liberal Democrat party leader makes a few comments about the proposed ID scheme
Nick Clegg MP has vowed to face court proceedings rather than register for an ID card if the government presses ahead with plans to make them compulsory.
If he were elected leader of the party he would urge his fellow MPs not to co-operate and ask Liberal Democrat controlled councils to ensure no local public services require an identity card.
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Author : |
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23/01/2008 |
The records of more than three million British learner drivers have gone missing from a “secure facility" in the US, an embarrassed Government admitted last night.
Labour's dismal autumn hit another low as, minutes after ministers admitted that they still did not know the whereabouts of two discs holding sensitive information on 25 million people, they were forced to confess they had lost the details of all candidates for the driving theory test between 2004 and 2007.
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Author : Philip Webster |
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23/01/2008 |
Liberty and the state: Ministers think good intentions are enough when it comes to civil liberties - but they're wrong.
A couple of weeks ago I was discussing the government's plans to increase detention without trial with a former Labour minister. He had supported Blair's attempt to take the limit to 90 days. Politely, I suggested that if he had been so convinced of the case, without any strong arguments being made to support it, that that must have been because he had access to security information that we, the public, hadn't seen. "No, not really," he said, breezily. But, he asserted, it was just logical to suppose that there would eventually be a case where the police would need more time for their investigations, and it would be better to have the powers on the statute book before such time rather than after.
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Author : Jenni Russell |
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23/01/2008 |
Should I go to jail rather than carry a hated identity card - and will I be able to get myself locked up, even if I try?
Those questions have been following me around ever since the “Datagate" scandal broke, with the loss of two CDs bearing our child benefits records.
Until this extraordinary blunder, we were all sleepwalking into the looming disaster of ID cards and the scary database that will accompany them.
The potential exposure of half the nation to fraudsters made everyone sit up and realise the far greater risk of piling far more detailed information onto the National Identity Register (NIR).
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Author : Rob Merrick |
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23/01/2008 |
What do fighter jets, ID cards, the sale of a department of the Ministry of Defence and measles have in common? The answer is they have all been involved in scandalously poorly run, and in one case quite possibly corrupt, government deals and schemes. And while they may seem to have nothing to do with UK democracy, the level of trust the public has in government, and its' competence, certainly does. Given that this is the government who struggle to send computer discs through the mail, it is no surprise that public trust ebbs by the day.
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Author : Ben Rymer |
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23/01/2008 |
There needs to be serious debate about the government's controversial ID cards scheme or else it should be scrapped, according to an influential thinktank.
A report from Demos stated that meaningful engagement with the public about how the technology should work must be a priority if the ID cards scheme is to go ahead.
"There needs to be a serious, renewed debate about the identity cards scheme, with the kind of engagement that should have happened at the start of the process. Otherwise, the scheme should be dropped," the Demos report FYI: The new politics of personal information stated.
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Author : Steve Ranger |
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23/01/2008 |
Sir, Meg Hillier's defence of the ID card scheme (Letters, November 29) omits crucial information. She mentions that the ID card database will hold core identity information and will not be an amalgam of all existing government data. This is true but the amount of information stored about us could grow exponentially without our necessarily knowing the plan would be to track the occasions our identity is checked on the database, giving the government access to our movements.
Ms Hillier also states that the use of biometrics will secure our unique identity. This is wrong. The scheme will now use fingerprints and facial scans as the main biometric identifiers (iris scans having been dropped because of their expense) and the claim of uniqueness cannot be substantiated.
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Author : Lynne Jones MP |
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23/01/2008 |
It is "truly bizarre" the loss of 25 million people's personal records has not made the government reconsider the practicalities of a nationwide identity database, the Conservative leader said today.
In their weekly Commons clash, David Cameron asked Gordon Brown if the revelation Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) had compromised the security of millions of people had made him stop and think about the safety of the national ID card scheme.
Mr Brown insisted ID cards would help make people feel more confident about their identity, citing the alleged benefits of biometric checks on identity.
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Author : |
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23/01/2008 |
The Government must urgently develop a better way of holding and using people's personal information, an influential report is to say.
Research by the think-tank Demos warns that people are losing control of their personal data and calls on the Government to act to ensure greater protection.
Its report, which is based on nine months of research, also calls for Labour's ID cards policy to be scrapped unless the public are properly consulted.
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Author : Press Association |
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23/01/2008 |
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'Open ID card debate to British public or scrap scheme,' think-tank tells PM |
Britain's identity card scheme must be scrapped unless the public is properly consulted, a think tank-will say today.
People are losing control of their personal data and the Government should act to ensure greater protection, the group warned.
The recommendations by independent research institute, Demos, come weeks after HM Revenue and Customs lost a CD containing the data of 25 million Britons.
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Author : |
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23/01/2008 |
If your bank lost your address through carelessness and penny-pinching, would you stay with them? I wouldn't. I've removed myself from mobile phone networks, email providers, academic mailing lists and online shops, all because I thought it was possible they were being a little careless with my contact details.
Now imagine that a company that you knew had just lost the details of 25 million of its customers, including some who are at risk of violence because of something they'd done for you in the past, was setting up a scheme to bring all of your biometric details together every valuable confidential piece of information that identifies you as you and was going to charge you £100 to join.
Want to sign up? No, me neither.
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Author : Ian Douglas |
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05/12/2007 |
The government needs to review the scale of its plans for identity cards in the wake of the release of 25 million names and addresses on government child benefit records, the information commissioner, Richard Thomas, told the justice select committee yesterday.
He claimed the government remained confused about the role of identity cards, and accused ministers of putting too much faith in the value of information sharing.
Thomas said: "Any massive collection of information like the identity card carries risk ... We still have some uncertainties about what the primary purpose of the identity card is ... Is it to improve policing, to fight terrorism, to improve public services, to avoid identity theft? I think there is a lot of thinking still to be done on its primary purpose."
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Author : Patrick Wintour |
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05/12/2007 |
Time to cut off IPS' air supply...
No2ID has launched a new campaign of civil disobedience* against ID cards, as a new poll shows that for the first time, opponents of the cards outnumber supporters. The poll - carried out by YouGov for the Daily Telegraph, shows 48 per cent against versus 43 per cent for.
The poll turnaround bears out a long-standing prediction by Simon Davies of Privacy International, who for some years has insisted that UK public opinion on ID cards would follow the same pattern as was the case in Australia. There, early support turned into hostility as the public learned more and more about the cards. Here, a 2003 YouGov poll showed 78 per cent for and 15 per cent against, with this falling to 45 per cent pro and 42 per cent against shortly after the July 2005 bombings. Subsequent movement likely has something to do with the Government's less-than-glorious recent record of protecting ID data, and as there seems a never-ending supply of bad news in that area, the numbers can surely only get worse for the Government.
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Author : John Lettice |
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05/12/2007 |
More people now oppose Labour's proposed ID cards than support them, a poll for The Daily Telegraph has found.
Just 43 per cent of those questioned said they favoured the introduction of a national identity scheme compared with 48 per cent who were against.
It is the first time YouGov has found more against than in favour.
When the ID scheme was first proposed by the Government in 2003, YouGov found 78 per cent supported it and just 15 per cent were opposed.
Since then, there has been a gradual erosion in support for ID cards and the recent loss of the country's entire child benefit records on two CDs seems to have tipped the balance.
Yesterday, it emerged that the Department of Work and Pensions let a contractor keep two discs with thousands of benefit claimants' details for more than a year.
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Author : Philip Johnston |
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05/12/2007 |
Security breaches that are allowing the financial details of tens of thousands of Britons to be sold on the internet are to be investigated by the country's information watchdog.
Without paying a single penny, The Times downloaded banking information belonging to 32 people, including a High Court deputy judge and a managing director. The private account numbers, PINs and security codes were offered as tasters by illegal hacking sites in the hope that purchases would follow.
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Author : Alexi Mostrous and Dominic Kennedy |
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05/12/2007 |
The Information Commissioners' in-tray got a little bigger today as it confirmed it would be investigating a series of ID trading sites unearthed by journalists.
The Times screamed today that "the financial details of tens of thousands of Britons" were being sold on the internet.
The paper detailed how it had been able to download banking information for 32 people, including account numbers, PINS, and security codes, "without spending a single penny". The data, including that of a deputy judge, was apparently offered as a free taster by the ID traders.
It's no secret that personal details are being traded online, although the fact that criminals are now offering free samples is a new wrinkle.
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Author : Joe Fay |
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05/12/2007 |
The suggestion by James Hall that Project Stork (Letters, November 29) has nothing to do with the national identity scheme is risible. The roadmap for the project was presented on June 13 at this year's European e-identity conference in Paris. Frank Leyman, manager for international relations at FEDICT (the Belgian public service responsible for e-government), described the project thus: "Implementation of an EU-wide interoperable system for recognition of electronic identification and authentication that will enable businesses, citizens and government employees to use their national electronic identities in any member state."
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Author : Geraint Bevan |
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05/12/2007 |
A growing scandal over the government's loss of the personal data of 25 million British people last week could carry unexpected consequences, according to a poll by Populus published in The Times. 55 per cent of respondents think the incident proves the government would be unable to handle the introduction of smart identification cards and should abandon plans to do so.
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Author : Angus Reid |
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05/12/2007 |
ID cards, government procedure and politicians' capability with technology are all called into question in House of Commons debate.
The identity card scheme, departmental processes and politicians truthfulness and ability to handle technology were all under discussion at a lengthy debate about data security among MPs at the House of Commons yesterday.
The debate was sparked by the massive data leak from HM Revenue and Customs, admitted by the government last week in a speech to the commons by Chancellor Alistair Darling.
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Author : Nicole Kobie |
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05/12/2007 |
News emerged yesterday of a mysterious international ID card plan, described by the Tories as "a European-wide identity card project called Project Stork". The Conservatives suggested in Parliament that Stork was a huge Europe-wide extension to the planned UK National ID card with its associated databases and biometrics.
"How," asked the shadow Home Sec David Davis, did the government intend to "prevent a repetition of the disaster of the past few weeks when sensitive personal data are held not by one Government but by 27?"
The actual Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, seemed a trifle puzzled about what exactly Stork might be
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Author : Lewis Page |
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05/12/2007 |
PDF - Towards a Pan-European eID identification system
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Author : |
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05/12/2007 |
The government's controversial plans for ID cards will be reviewed in the light of the loss of 25 million people's personal data.
Data protection minister Michael Wills told MPs and Lords it was inevitable the government would have to review plans for a nationwide identity database.
He was reporting to the parliamentary committee on human rights a week after it emerged HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has lost two computer discs containing personal information of child benefit claimants.
Mr Wills told the committee: "We are going to obviously have to look at the national identity register in the light of all this.
"We are going to have to learn the lessons. Everything will have to be scrutinised and then we will assess it again."
However, he denied the data breach meant the government would be forced to abandon the ID card scheme, which is opposed by both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.
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Author : |
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05/12/2007 |
A Conservative MP has claimed the government's ID cards strategy will not protect the UK from terrorists
Speaking in the Commons on 26 November 2007, Tory MP Patrick Mercer said that those who were resident in the country for three months or less would not be required to carry an identity card.
While interrogating borders and immigration minister Liam Byrne, Mercer said: "A cursory understanding of the core Al Qaeda group makes it quite clear that its visits to countries such as ours will last a lot less than three months. Does that not drive a coach and horses through the whole concept of ID cards?"
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Author : |
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05/12/2007 |
I have never been convinced by Francis Bacon's aphorism: “knowledge itself is power". Presumably I am gaining more knowledge as I get older. Yet I feel more wimpish, less in charge of my own life or the lives of others, with each passing year. Are librarians powerful? Are academics? Are those minicab drivers or retired schoolteachers who always seem to do well on TV quiz shows?
No, knowledge itself is not power. What helps people to acquire and retain power - whether in politics, business or personal relationships - are secrets. The powerful are paranoid about keeping their own. They are cunning about extracting other people's. And they are ruthless about using secrets thus acquired without scruple or hesitation.
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Author : Richard Morrison |
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05/12/2007 |
The Government was accused of a fresh security blunder yesterday after Britain's top taxman sent millions of parents an apology letter containing sensitive personal data.
Anti-fraud experts and police urged people to destroy the letters, which contain each claimants' name, address, national insurance and child benefit numbers. Criminals use such information to open bank accounts, claim benefits and apply for passports.
Nigel Evans MP, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Identity Fraud, said that the taxman's latest error would come like an early Christmas present to conmen.
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Author : Dominic Kennedy |
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05/12/2007 |
Last week's loss of confidential child benefit records has been a wake-up call to 25 million people about the reality of the government's handling of our personal information. But few realise the extent of what lies ahead. The Identity Cards Act, which slipped, barely noted, on to the statute books in 2006, is the jewel in the crown of a wholesale and well-advanced government commitment to "share" data about each of us between departments on an unprecedented scale. Already some 265 government departments are data-sharing. Electronic identity management in the UK is deeply entrenched in government policy, and yet no one can guarantee that such a data-sharing system can be secure. All we can do is hand over our information, cross our fingers, and hope that it won't happen to us.
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Author : Christina Zaba |
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05/12/2007 |
The proposed national identity register - the heart of the Government's identity card scheme is to be reassessed in light of the recent data loss at HM Revenue & Customs.
Michael Wills, the data protection minister, said that the loss of CDs containing the details of 25 million people would have implications for the register. We are going to have to learn the lessons, he told the joint Lords and Commons human rights committee. Everything will have to be scrutinised and then we will assess it again.
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Author : Richard Ford |
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05/12/2007 |
The Conservative leader has warned of the dangers to data security posed by the national identity card scheme
David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party, called on prime minister Gordon Brown to re-think his plans for a national identity register, following the "appalling blunder" which led to the huge loss of child benefit data from HM Revenue and Customs.
He said that the public "will find it truly bizarre - they will find it weird - that the prime minister does not stop and think about the dangers of a National Identity Register"
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Author : |
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05/12/2007 |
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Government offered alternative national ID scheme that doesn't require national database |
A biometric security firm is pitching a national identity scheme designed to allay fears caused by the government holding and trying to manage a national identity base.
The biometric smartcard system proposed by UK Biometrics is being promoted as the government tries to address the outcry caused by HMRC losing the child benefit records of 25m people.
The plan would be to store everybody's biometric data on any smart card chip, currently embedded in credit cards. For those people who do not carry credit cards, a dedicated smart card would cost about £5 - much cheaper than the estimated cost of the current national identity card scheme, said the firm
When required by police or authorities to positively identify themselves, the card holder would slot their smart card into a hand-held biometric scanner, place their fingertip onto the reader and have their identity confirmed.
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Author : Antony Savvas |
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05/12/2007 |
Following the loss of 25m records ID card alternatives are coming to the fore
Since HMRC lost 25 million records, public trust in the government's introduction of ID cards is fading and alternative schemes are growing in appeal.
UK Biometrics Ltd has proposed a scheme where an individual's biometric data would be stored on their smart card chips in their credit cards, and there would be no need for a centralised national identity database.
When required by police or authorities to positively identify themselves the card holder would slot their smart card into a hand held biometric scanner, place their fingertip onto the reader and have their identity confirmed," said the firm.
The solution would help eliminate fraud as well as giving the ownership of data to the individual.
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Author : Rosalie Marshall |
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04/12/2007 |
Dis-information systems management
Comment: When it comes to talking about last week's data loss by the HMRC, I was told not to use precious words outlining my feelings of rage and bafflement that a government body can be so cavalier with so much data because, presumably, we all feel the same.
So I will simply note, for the record, that my gob has been totally smacked by this debacle. What I will do is to take a look at the technical elements of this case from the database/data perspective.
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Author : Mark Whitehorn |
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04/12/2007 |
Ministers will quickly lose their shame over the missing 25 million files and continue to stockpile our most personal secrets
There's no time to crow over the government's loss of 25 million people's details; no time to rejoice at the obvious mortification of Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling, his sidekick, Andy Burnham, Jacqui Smith and Harriet Harman.
These people will not be deterred by the calamity of last week. They are shameless. In a month or two they will bounce back. The ID card scheme will be relaunched and Jacqui Smith will continue with her plans to demand 53 pieces of information from people before they travel abroad. The Children's Index, the Children's Assessment Framework, the National Health database, the ever-expanding police DNA database will all continue to scoop up information. Why? Because the control of the masses is coded in the deepest part of Labour's being.
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Author : Henry Porter |
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04/12/2007 |
Sometimes just throwing a few long words about can make people think you know what you're talking about. Words like "biometric". When Alistair Darling was asked if the government will ditch ID cards in the light of this week's data cock-up, he replied: "The key thing about identity cards is, of course, that information is protected by personal biometric information. The problem at present is that, because we do not have that protection, information is much more vulnerable than it should be."
Yes, that's the problem. We need biometric identification. Fingerprints. Iris scans. Gordon Brown says so too: "What we must ensure is that identity fraud is avoided, and the way to avoid identity fraud is to say that for passport information we will have the biometric support that is necessary."
Tsutomu Matsumoto is a Japanese mathematician, a cryptographer who works on security, and he decided to see if he could fool the machines which identify you by your fingerprint. This home science project costs about £20. Take a finger and make a cast with the moulding plastic sold in hobby shops. Then pour some liquid gelatin (ordinary food gelatin) into that mould and let it harden. Stick this over your finger pad: it fools fingerprint detectors about 80% of the time. The joy is, once you've fooled the machine, your fake fingerprint is made of the same stuff as fruit pastilles, so you can simply eat the evidence.
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Author : Ben Goldacre |
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04/12/2007 |
Gordon Brown has told us a national identity card scheme would make people feel safer. The reverse is true. The catastrophic loss of the personal and financial details of 25m people by HM Revenue & Customs has made people uneasy about handing yet more data to the government. The prime minister should think again: the gross mishandling of child-benefit data should be the final nail in the coffin of this deeply flawed scheme.
After a protracted battle in parliament, a bill giving the government powers to issue ID cards received royal assent last year. Contracts for the scheme went out to tender in the summer and the first cards will be issued to UK residents in 2009. Registration for the scheme will be compulsory. But people will not, for now, be required to carry the cards.
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Author : |
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04/12/2007 |
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Network security: is this scandal the end of the ID card nightmare? |
A big week for news, this, as the story breaks that the Government has just lost detailed records belonging to half the UK's population.
Security cannot help but be one of the recurring themes here and in most places in the IT industry. It was once a bolt-on but now it's at the stage where it's embedded in everything the industry does. Without that vital security tick on the checklist, vendors can't sell it.
Things clearly move differently in Government. Or do they?
It's hard to tell from the outside as the Government's mechanisms are shrouded in secrecy -- even though it's our data that its civil servants are handling. What seems to have happened is that a relatively junior individual needed to transport the entire child benefit database from Washington in the north-east to London. He or she burned the database onto two CDs, hired TNT to send a bike and shipped it to the smoke.
Only it didn't arrive.
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Author : Manek Dubash |