UK's National ID Card

[TriWooOx]

Quote:Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is setting out a revised timetable for the roll-out of identity cards in the UK.

Non-EU migrants will have to get cards from later this year, airport baggage handlers from 2009 and - from 2010 - students will be offered ID cards.

She also suggests the wider population may not have to get ID cards at all and could opt to use biometric passports to prove who they are instead.

Both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are opposed to ID cards.

Ms Smith, in a speech later, will say that the first Britons to get the ID cards will be those working airside in Britain's airports, such as baggage handlers and cabin crew.

She will also announce a rollout to students - with the thinking being that they will be the most willing to accept them as they could help students do things such as open bank accounts.

Fingerprint tells all

Ms Smith also said, ahead of the speech, that from 2011 - later than planned - people would have to give their biometric details when renewing their passports.

The plan had been that everyone getting a passport would have to get an identity card from 2010, but Ms Smith says that people will instead have the choice to use the biometric passport as their identity document instead.

The government's plans for ID cards, linking personal data to a fingerprint, have been plagued by technical delays, budget overspend and political controversy.

The government claims identity cards will boost security, tackle identity fraud and prevent illegal immigration.

Critics oppose the cards on cost, effectiveness and civil liberty grounds.

Government sources have suggested that the next groups to be offered ID cards will be those working in sensitive roles or locations.

'Dangerous core'

It is thought these could include people not just with security related jobs, but also those involved in caring for children.

But some security experts stress that those convicted of terrorism in recent years were never involved with identity fraud.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown hinted earlier this year that the scheme may not be compulsory for UK nationals but suggestions of a U-turn were denied.

Former Home Secretary David Blunkett, who introduced the initial identity card scheme, has previously said it would not work unless everyone had to have a card.

Shadow home secretary David Davis said: "The government may have removed the highly visible element but they have still left the dangerous core of this project.

"The National Identity Register, which will contain dozens of personal details of every adult in this country in one place, will be a severe threat to our security and a real target for criminals, hackers and terrorists.

"This is before you take the government's legendary inability to handle people's data securely into account."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7280495.stm

[eyeland]

The key words are...

"She also suggests the wider population MAY NOT HAVE TO GET ID CARDS at all and could opt to use biometric passports to prove who they are instead."

Unless their is another Terror Attack of course...

Also..."Government sources have suggested that THE NEXT GROUPS to be offered ID cards will be those working in sensitive roles or locations.

Incremental steps anyone..?

No doubt there'll be big discount incentives for students getting them, who seem more interested in style than society these days.

15% off beer with your ID card students!!! I'm sure we will see soon.

ID cards will help students get bank accounts. This is their real objective. Payment Cards in a cashless society.

Oh well...are you watching NO2ID?

[Bobalob]

the database behind it is the problem.

Like everything thats opposed in this country the government just phases it in anyway lol.

[DJOldskool]

Exactly it is the database systems that are the problem. It wont be long before they interlink them and make them uber important for day to day life. Then all it takes is an edit hee and there and your life is ruined.

It seems the solution to every problem here is now a new database.

Case in point, Kid is well known to social services and is seen in A&E several times, nothing is done. Then is tortured and killed by relatives here.
Solution: we need a database to list every child in the country. WTF how does that make sense?

[TriWooOx]

Quote:Today's terrorists would only be beaten by 21st century solutions such as ID cards, Gordon Brown has claimed.

Defending the scheme, along with 42-day detention, DNA registers and CCTV, he warned authorities could not afford to bury their heads in the sand.

'New technology is giving us modern means by which we can discharge these duties, but just as we need to employ these modern means to protect people from new threats, we must at the same time do more to guarantee our liberties,' he said.

'Facing these modern challenges, it is our duty to write a new chapter in our country's story - one in which we both protect and promote our security and our liberty, two equally proud traditions.'

The prime minister was defending his security policies nearly a week after he scraped the 42-day law through the Commons. Security was 'one of the greatest challenges in the modern world', he told a think-tank, adding 2,000 terror suspects were being monitored in Britain. Mr Brown also pointed out terrorism was not the only problem society was facing.

'Organised crime has changed beyond recognition from the days of the Krays,' he added.

'No longer confined to a neighbourhood or city but involving networks spanning the world -threatening lives and feeding conflict and instability.'

The speech came days after David Davis stood down as a Conservative MP to fight a by-election on civil liberties.

Meanwhile, Phil Booth of pressure group No2ID said Mr Brown's speech showed 'he simply doesn't get it'. And Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti added: 'The government doesn't want emergency powers but a permanent state of emergency.'

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?i...mp;in_a_source=

[Guest]

Quote:'The government doesn't want emergency powers but a permanent state of emergency.'

Well said.

[ToddTraf]

uknova's trackers delete your account after 42 days of inactivity. JUst another downside......... hehe

[TriWooOx]

Quote:For anyone unable to remember their password as they login to a particular website, a new industry group is calling for passwords to be replaced by an electronic ID card, with which users would have to sign in only once.

'Life on the net is an endless typing and clicking,' said Paul Trevithick, chairman of the Information Card Foundation. 'The passwords you forget are the ones you don't use all the time. The solution tends to be using the same password every time, which is almost like not having one at all. Every time you register on a new site you have to fill in your name and a lot of other information.'

The foundation is pioneering an 'i-card' which users would download on to their computer's browser or access remotely with a Pin number. Each time they visited a sensitive website they would click on an icon and their digital identity would be verified remotely. The foundation claims this would improve users' security, particularly against 'phishing', in which fake corporate websites trick people into entering their passwords.

Last week a survey by computer systems company Nasstar found that password resets were the top bugbear for British IT departments. Nasstar said the results showed 'skilled staff are being wasted on the IT equivalent of vacuuming and washing the dishes'.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/ju...dcards.internet

[mexika]

Security is being implemented in major government buildings, federal, state, and city. Cameras in stair wells with key cards, cameras in Elevators, and garage parking lots and tight security at entrances and exits. There is just a more example of security control because of what the NWO and corporations might appear to do more destructive behavior abroad, control our food, peoples minds, and raise a racist divide and conquer within cities, state, and federal through some really nasty and wicked control. Remember the movie 'VIOLET" there were cameras all over the fukn place and people were imprisoned in a type of concrete jungle circle while nature was well and alive outside. If you have not seen the movie, see it. The I.D card is just more control which the government sees as a threat by a low majority of people who appear more savvy than the average citizen. They want to control the savvy and what they deem as stupid. Power corrupts and power wants all power...

[yeti]

Quote:Remember the movie 'VIOLET" there were cameras all over the fukn place and people were imprisoned in a type of concrete jungle circle while nature was well and alive outside. If you have not seen the movie, see it.

Do you mean Ultraviolet?

[mexika]

Quote:

Quote:Remember the movie 'VIOLET" there were cameras all over the fukn place and people were imprisoned in a type of concrete jungle circle while nature was well and alive outside. If you have not seen the movie, see it.

Do you mean Ultraviolet?

Yup...thats the movie...

[TriWooOx]

Quote:The national identity card scheme faces fresh problems following a warning from the government's top scientific advisers that the quality of fingerprints from 4 million people aged over 75 may be too poor to be used to prove their identity.

The "gold standard" integrity of the national identity scheme would depend on all 10 digits of the hands of everyone in Britain over 16 being accurately recorded on the central register, but experts have now told Home Office ministers that it is "hard to obtain good quality fingerprints" from the over-75s.

They warned that "exceptional handling" arrangements would have to be made to handle the registration of those whose fingerprints are not up to scratch. This would have a "large impact not only on the technical elements of the scheme but [also] on businesses processes, schedules and costs".

American experts estimate between 2% and 5% of adults have poor quality fingerprints, which means ridges on the fingers are not sharply defined enough to be reliably copied by an automatic scanner.

The warning is contained in a report slipped out before Parliament rose for the summer recess from the biometrics assurance group, which is made up of independent experts from Whitehall, the industry and universities and chaired by the government's chief scientific adviser, Professor John Beddington. The group was set up to review the science behind the ID card scheme.

The group said urgent research was needed into the problem. It told ministers they needed to make available alternative identity checks based on electronic iris scans, for those unable to enrol using fingerprints. The Home Office, however, has ruled out the use of iris scanning because it is too expensive.

An Identity and Passport Service spokesman said the body disagreed with the expert assessment of the problem: "We anticipate that situations in which fingerprint image quality is so poor that it is unusable will be extremely rare. Even in the 75-plus age group, print quality is normally perfectly usable.

"On the very rare occasions when a fingerprint image falls below the quality required for automated matching it is passed to a fingerprint expert who carries out the coding manually so it can be stored on the database." He added that a fingerprint expert could also manually compare two fingerprints to confirm a person's identity.

However, the national ID card scheme depends not only on fingerprints being accurately recorded on registration but being good enough to be repeatedly scanned to confirm somebody's identity when the system is up and running.

The scientific and technical experts also voiced wider concern that difficulties in enrolling people with "challenging biometrics" had not been sufficiently tested in the ID card trials so far. They suggested the test group needed to be expanded to include those who were "elderly, mute, non-English speaking, blind or visually impaired".

The Royal National Institute of Blind People has already raised concerns about the difficulties faced by visually impaired people registering under the scheme.

The first ID cards under the scheme are due to be issued next year to staff in security-sensitive locations, such as airports, with young people to follow in 2010.

Phil Booth, national coordinator of the No2ID campaign, said the report confirmed millions would suffer inconvenience, distress and worse under the ID regime. He said: "Suggestions manual checks will suffice every time the computer says 'no' begs the question, what is the point of the system in the first place?"

He said the problems raised about the biometrics were fundamental and meant that compulsory fingerprinting would embed discrimination at the heart of the ID card scheme. "Higher failure rates for the old, ethnic minorities, the disabled and the infirm risk creating a biometric underclass," he warned.

The group of independent scientific and technical experts also said that proper attention needed to be paid to issues of privacy and consent across the national identity scheme, and urged the public to be well-informed about how their data could be used and shared with certain government bodies without the consent of the individual involved.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/aug/15/idcards

[TriWooOx]

Quote:Whose idea was it?

The identity-card plan has a long history. Michael Howard was in favour in his days as home secretary in the 1990s and, when Labour came to power, Jack Straw floated that idea of a "citizen's access card".

After the September 11 attacks in 2001, David Blunkett, the then-home secretary, began to promote it heavily, although it took him some time to persuade his cabinet colleagues.

What are the cards supposed to achieve?

Home secretaries such as Howard and Blunkett have been attracted to identity cards as a weapon in the fight against crime, and some police organisations are in favour on these grounds too. It has been argued that identity cards could help the authorities target terrorists, serious criminals using false identities, welfare fraudsters and illegal immigrants.

But the government now puts far less emphasis on this argument, partly because the terrorists involved in 9/11 and 7/7 were not using false identities and partly because cards would only work as anti-crime devices if they were compulsory, which raises another problem altogether (see below).

Increasingly ministers now argue that identity cards will serve as a consumer facility for people who need to prove their identity when opening bank accounts, etc.

What powers does the government have?

The main enabling legislation, the Identity Cards Act, went through parliament two years ago and is now law. But it gave ministers considerable discretion as to how they implement the scheme. Gordon Brown has also said that parliament will vote before the introduction of a compulsory scheme.

What does the scheme involve?

More than just having a bit of plastic. The identity card itself would be linked to a national identity database which would contain dozens of pieces of information, such as photographs, national insurance numbers, dates of birth and addresses. It would also include biometric information – fingerprints.

When will they come in?

Foreigners from outside the EU will need to register their biometric details from later this year. From 2009 the scheme will be extended to people working in high-risk areas, such as airports. From 2010 they will be offered to students. And from 2011 they will be offered to people renewing their passports.

Why students?

The government believes that they will be attracted by the idea of having identity cards because, as they open bank accounts and rent property, they have a particular need to be able to prove their identity.

Will the cards be compulsory?

They will be for non-EU migrants and for workers in high-risk areas. For British citizens they will not exactly be compulsory, but it will be impossible to get a passport without putting your details on the database, so, in practice, for anyone wanting to travel abroad, they will be.

Will the database be safe?

That depends who you believe. The government says that the information will only be accessible to "highly security-cleared individuals". But the recent security lapses with data have highlighted how easy it is for things to go wrong and today's revelations about the problems with fingerprints for those over the age of 75 have illustrated another potential problem.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/ma...dcards.privacy1

[TriWooOx]

Quote:Identity cards could be handed out to children as young as 14, a home office minister has suggested.

The first ID cards are due to be offered to 16 and 17-year-olds from 2010 as part of a plan to introduce the controversial scheme in stages.

But Meg Hillier said the age range was still "up for grabs" and could be lowered "if they prove popular".

She also said the scheme might be too far advanced for the Tories to "unpick" if they came to power in 2010.

Speaking at a "No ID, No Sale" fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference, Ms Hillier said a ministerial working party was considering extending the scheme to younger children and was talking to the universities and youth groups about the idea.

She said she had been "struck" by a visit to Hungary, where 14-year-olds routinely carried ID cards - and she pointed out that six-year-olds were already fingerprinted for visas.

'Full steam ahead'

The Conservatives and Lib Dems have both said they would scrap the ID card scheme, which they say will cost too much and threatens civil liberties.

But Ms Hillier said the Tories would find it difficult to "devalidate" the cards that had already been issued and scrap the database that was also being used for passports.

"There isn't an easy way to unpick this scheme, quite rightly because it is invaluable."

She also hit back at suggestions by anti-ID card campaigners that the scheme might not go ahead.

"it is full steam ahead," she told the meeting, "in fact the prime minister wanted me to do it quicker than it was possible."

She said, at £30, the cards would be cheaper than passports, which they would probably replace passports altogether at some point in the future.

Retailers abused

James Logan, of the Association of Convenience Stores, said his organisation backed ID cards but wanted government to take the lead in changing the culture so that people would get used to being asked to prove their age.

At the moment, shop workers were being abused and assaulted when they asked for ID from young people trying to buy cigarettes, alcohol, solvents and other age-restricted products, he told the meeting.

Chris Ogden, of the Tobacco Manufacturers' Association, which represents the big cigarette firms, also backed ID cards but said it would persist with its own proof-of-age scheme "until such time as a national identity card is introduced".

Ms Hillier said she would be speaking to the retailers' trade association about ways of helping customers get used to producing their ID cards as proof of age in shops, although she stressed it was "not the primary function" of ID cards.

She doubted whether the UK would ever have a "proof of age" culture similar to the United States, which "dates back to prohibition".

Phil Booth of No2ID said Ms Hiller was "delusional" if she thought ID cards could not be scrapped by an incoming Conservative government.

"The officials themselves, since 2006 have designed the contract on the basis that the entire scheme could be canned at the next election."

"It could simply be downgraded so it is just for passports," he told the BBC News website.

Mr Booth, who had been due to speak at the fringe meeting but was unable to gain entry to the conference centre because of a problem with his pass application, also criticised the plan to give the cards to younger children.

He said ID cards legislation specified a minimum age of 16 and he said it was wrong for young people to be tied into a giant database "for the rest of their lives".

On his conference pass problems, he said: "If this is how they are organising their ID for their own party conference, how the heck are they going to organise ID cards for 50 million people?"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7630088.stm

[TriWooOx]

Quote:The first identity cards from the government's controversial national scheme are due to be revealed.

The biometric card will be issued from November, initially to non-EU students and marriage visa holders.

The design - containing a picture and digitally-stored fingerprints - is a precursor to the proposed national identity card scheme.

Critics say the roll-out to some immigrants is a "softening up" exercise to win over a sceptical general public.

The card, to be unveiled by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, will also include information on holders' immigration status.

The UK Border Agency will begin issuing the biometric cards to the two categories of foreign nationals who officials say are most at risk of abusing immigration rules - students and those on a marriage or civil partnership visa.

Both types of migrants will be told they must have the new card when they ask to extend their stay in the country.

The cards partly replace a paper-based system of immigration stamps - but will now include the individual's name and picture, their nationality, immigration status and two fingerprints.

Immigration officials will store the details centrally and, in time, they are expected to be merged into the proposed national identity register.

The card cannot be issued to people from most parts of Europe because they have the right to move freely in and out of the UK.

Ministers say the cards will combat illegal immigration and working because officials, employers and educational establishments will be able to check a migrant's entitlements more easily.

The Conservatives say they support modern biometric cards for immigrants - but they say a national identity register remains unworkable.

Phil Booth, head of the national No2ID campaign group, attacked the roll-out of the cards as a "softening-up exercise".

"The Home Office is trying to salami slice the population to get this scheme going in any way they can," Mr Booth told the BBC.

"Once they get some people to take the card it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.

"The volume of foreign nationals involved is minuscule so it won't do anything to tackle illegal immigration.

"They've basically picked on a group of people who have no possibility of objecting to the card - they either comply or they are out."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7634111.stm