Identity Cards in the UK

from cryptogon, 12 July 2009: "To protect against skimming and eavesdropping attacks, federal and state officials recommend that Americans keep their e-passports tightly shut and store their RFID-tagged passport cards and enhanced driver’s licenses in “radio-opaque” sleeves. That’s because experiments have shown that the e-passport begins transmitting some data when opened even a half inch, and chipped passport cards and EDLs can be read from varying distances depending on reader techonology..." more

from email via noborders london, updated 25 November 2008: Biometric ID cards will come into force for non-EU students and spouses from 25th November 2008 and will be issued from offices in Birmingham, Cardiff, Croydon, Glasgow, Liverpool, and Sheffield. We will be holding a protest outside the Home Office building (Lunar House) in Croydon, London and hope for protests outside each of the other offices on that day. more

from corpwatch, 11 November 2008: "The Home Office has introduced new biometric ID cards for two categories of foreign nationals. Amid fierce opposition, the controversial scheme will initially only apply to non-EU students and marriage visa holders, with the first voluntary ID cards to be available to British citizens from 2009..." more

from email, 29 October 2008: "Privacy group No2ID is calling for legal protections before the introduction of mobile fingerprint scanners next year. The National Policing Improvement Agency handed over £50m for mobile devices to police forces. These will allow officers to check fingerprints against the Police National Computer..."  more

from independent, 21 October 2008: Early plans to create a giant "Big Brother" database holding information about every phone call, email and internet visit made in the UK were last night condemned by the Government's own terrorism watchdog. Lord Carlile of Berriew QC, the independent reviewer of anti-terrorist laws, said the "raw idea" of the database was "awful" and called for controls to stop government agencies using it to conduct fishing expeditions into the private lives of the public. more

from Privacy International, 6 April 2008: "Privacy International and the UK's NO2ID have launched a campaign to show the dangers of the collection of fingerprints into central government databases. We are offering a reward for the first person to collect and submit the UK Prime Minister's and Home Secretary's fingerprints..." more

from theregister, 23 March 2008: Here are two articles from www.theregister.co.uk on developments in the UK police's intention to have real-time access to all CCTV camera and Oyster card data. The top cops at ACPO are looking into how all cameras could be a) improved to give better images and b) registered and integrated into a pig-heaven national, searchable, real-time monitoring system. Facial recognition, sus behaviour, looking foreign in a white man's area. more

from manchesterno2id 07/03/2008: Manchester campaigners have condemned the Home Secretary's announcement on identity cards as a "meaningless smokescreen", under which the Government will continue their plan to coerce people into state control. Under new proposals, airport workers and non-EU foreign nationals will be forced onto the Government's databases, and biometric passports may replace identity cards as physical ID documents. more

from The Register, republished here 2 February 2008: "Various forms of coercion" could be used to accelerate the rollout of ID cards, the idea being that ID cards will remain 'voluntary' for as long as possible, while not having an ID card will become more and more uncomfortable. This, precisely what the government has intended to do all along, is stated baldly in an Identity & Passport Service leak cited by the Sunday People. more

from imc-uk, 21 November 2007: "The use of biometric ID cards in Fallujah perhaps gives an insight into the likely reasoning behind their introduction in UK society ... Three years after a devastating U.S.-led siege of the city, residents of Fallujah continue to struggle with a shattered economy and infrastructure and a lack of mobility..." more

from infoshop, 30 October 2007: From the company that brought you the C programming language comes Hancock, a C variant developed by AT&T researchers to mine gigabytes of the company's telephone and internet records for surveillance purposes. more

from email, 24 October 2007: Recent news, upcoming events and ongoing campaigns from Manchester NO2ID. Manchester NO2ID has been organising further screenings of the "Taking Liberties" documentary which is now available on DVD. +++ Manchester NO2ID will be holding our monthly meeting in the upstairs function room of the Town Hall Tavern, Tib Lane, Manchester.  more