UK ID cards U-turn

The UK government has revised its plans for a national compulsory biometric identity card. The original proposal was for a new 'clean' central database to hold all personal information - name, date of birth, NI number, address, biometric data (iris scans, fingerprints, DNA?) as well as extra options for immigration status, medical and criminal records.

Having realised that it was going to be very expensive, they've decided instead to cobble together three existing databases - which is a bit funny because they are all old and wildly inaccurate. For example, the Department for Work & Pensions database of national insurance numbers contains 20 million more numbers than living citizens.

One interesting point is the idea that any non-European citizen coming to the UK for more more than 6 months for any reason will have to submit iris scans and fingerprints to the database to gain a visa for travel here. Data would be collected at 150 identity centres around the world. So the UK government (and the secret police) would gradually collect valuable (in terms of intelligence and in monetary value) on a vast number of non-UK citizens.

Proposals are also afoot for the compulsory cards to be compatible with existing payment chip-and-PIN systems for easy integration. So all your payment transactions can be monitored.

Its a little surprising that the british state doesn't just come out and admit that they want to know:

- every paymnet you make or receive
- the time, duration and destination of any journey by public transport
- the time, duration and destination of all journeys by car through ANPR (automatic number plate recognition - in action now)
- your entire work/non-work and tax history
- where you live, and where you have ever lived
- your immigration status
- where you go on your holidays
- your entire medical history
- your entire criminal / political history
- your exact physical location anywhere in the country / world / universe at any time of day or night
- how long you spent on the toilet this morning
- oh, and everything else

A bit like "ID CARDS macht frei"

The only people who seem really convinced that all this is a good idea which helps people is the people who are going to make billions foisting this on everyone, and the pigs and the state. As none of these people are my friends it seems to me this ID card caper is 'not a good thing'.

What follows is a bit of shameless cut n paste from a variety of sources.

from the graunida:

ID card plan sparks fears over data security

The computer database behind the government's controversial ID card scheme will be an amalgamation of existing IT networks, rather then one built from scratch, John Reid announced today. But he insisted that this did not amount to a U-turn.

Originally, the record system, known as the national identity register, was to have been entirely newly-built, in order to avoid contamination from errors in existing database files on individuals.

But, in a 33-page progress report on the timetable for an identity card scheme, the home secretary revealed that instead the database would be compiled from amalgamated information from three separate Whitehall databases.

The information will be split between computers at the Department for Work and Pensions, the Home Office and the immigration and passport service.

...

The "action plan" announced today would also see the creation next year of 69 regional offices for citizens to supply their biometric and iris details.

Some of these could be provided by the private sector, the Home Office document suggests.

...

The plan also suggests that the ID card itself, which will initially be manufactured in-house by the Home Office, should be compatible with chip-and-pin technology, and that the database will not be connected directly to the internet, to prevent hacking.

Any interference with the database will carry a maximum 10-year prison sentence.

...

New primary legislation would be required to make carrying an identity card compulsory, but at present the timetable will see some foreign nationals required to register for biometric details next year, the first "voluntary" ID cards issued alongside passports from 2009.

Concurrent with the action plan, Mr Reid also announced proposals to force foreigners already in the UK to register their biometrics, such as fingerprints and iris scans.

"We are going to look at how we could do it for people who are already here," he said.

The immigration minister, Liam Byrne, said that a consultation paper would be published in the new year.

...

Phil Booth, the national coordinator of the NO2ID campaign group, said: "This is pretty appalling. Rather than a single, highly-secure database that David Blunkett and Charles Clarke promised the nation, the Home Office is now saying we are simply going to designate people's data which is mixed in with other data."

He also claimed that children as young as 11 will have to be fingerprinted and have their irises read for the scheme.

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from www.egovmonitor.com

New powers to capture foreign national's biometrics

Powers to compel foreign nationals in the UK to register their biometrics will be considered by the Home Office in the New Year.

The power would be introduced on a rolling basis and would build on biometric IDs for foreign nationals, which will be introduced from 2008, targeting those applicants where cards will bring the greatest benefits, such as migrant workers seeking to extend their stay in the UK.

...

The plans further underline how the use of identity checks and biometrics, including fingerprints, iris scans and facial recognition, will help secure Britain’s border and crackdown on illegal working and fraudulent access to services.

The plans show that:

- between January and May 2006 there were more than 7,000 positive hits by enforcement officers using mobile fingerprint equipment;
- there were 6,000 alerts, resulting in 620 arrests following people identified on warning lists attempting to travel on certain high risk routes into the UK;
- more than 1,500 people, who have previously claimed asylum or been fingerprinted for other immigration purposes, have been identified trying to return to the UK and have been caught out by new biometric visa processes;
- more than 51,000 people have enrolled in the Government’s secure immigration scheme Iris, exceeding the Government’s 40,000 target set out in the IND Review; and
- nearly four million facial biometric British passports have been issued.
Immigration Minister Liam Byrne said:

“We’re determined that Britain won’t be a soft touch for illegal immigration. Compulsory biometric identity for foreign nationals will help us secure our borders, shut down access to the illegal jobs, which we know attracts illegal immigrants, and help fight foreign criminals.

“The technology is already making a difference, stopping illegal immigrants returning to Britain once they’ve been deported, helping trusted travellers pass securely through our borders and cutting down abuse of the asylum system.”

...

Biometric ID visas are currently issued at 42 posts abroad. By 2007 that will have been expanded to 150 posts and by 2008 we will have in place biometric ID requirements for everyone outside the other 28 European Economic Area (EEA) nations coming to the UK for work, study or to stay for longer than six months, plus anyone coming to visit from the 108 visa nations.

From 2008 we will start to introduce biometric ID cards for foreign nationals from outside the EEA who are already in the UK and reapply to stay here, working with employers to trial these in areas where this will be most useful to them.

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Thank god for joined-up government!