Every so often it’s good to take time out and remember just why we campaign so relentlessly to protect our human and civil rights.
In case your motivation is on the wane, have a read of the Guardian Weekly’s report on Sri Lanka’s Civilian Tragedy. Here’s an excerpt:
“These days I often visit the north of Sri Lanka, but I have to hand over my identity card at the army-controlled border, and they tell me I can only stay limited periods of time. I spend hours at these checkpoints, having my registration taken, cards checked, answering questions.
“In the north, all vehicles are barred from the roads after 5pm and barriers are pulled across. In each household every person must have their identity card, and each house must have a list of registered people and a group photo. They are checked all the time. Any extra people in the house could be taken away. If there’s a person missing, after dark, they’re in trouble.
“Army personnel take vehicles whenever they want, telling the owner to come and pick it up from such-a-such a station. Sometimes it will be there, or sometimes the person picking it up will be detained. Identity cards are also used like this: the police will take the cards from young men and tell them to report to the station the next day to collect them. Some of the men never come home, or on the way back they are killed by unknown gunmen. This is very common.”
The first UK ID cards have already been issued - but UK authorities have no way of reading the data stored on them.
An FoI request by Silicon.com revealed that no police stations, border entry points or job centres have readers in place for the card’s biometric chip.
Cambridge University security expert Richard Clayton told silicon.com:
“If this capability is not there then the biometrics are, in short, a waste of time.
“I would have thought that the government would have tried to get the readers rolled out as soon as possible as it is only when you get serious deployments that you start to learn what can go wrong.”
The Number10 ePetitions website was set up some time ago to allow the public to get together and demand a response from Government on an issue. This one caught my eye:
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to hold a referendum on ID cards and the National Identity Register
In view of the government’s inability to protect our privacy, in particular by losing our personal details on a regular basis, we must hold a referendum on the introduction of Identity Cards and the National Identity Register.
The following response was published this week:
Thank you for your petition suggesting holding a referendum on the introduction of identity cards and the National Identity Register (NIR).
The Government does not believe that there is a need to hold a public referendum on the introduction of the NIR and associated ID cards, as the Government was elected in 2005 on a manifesto commitment to introduce ID cards, and has a clearly established policy to introduce a National Identity Scheme, based on legislation approved by Parliament.
The Independent’s Home Affairs correspondent Ben Russell reports the parliamnetary debate on the data sharing clauses in the Coroners and Justice Bill:
But Dominic Grieve, the shadow Justice Secretary, said the plans would “drive a coach and horses through the traditional relationship between the state and individuals” to serve a “nebulous case of public good”. He warned that the Bill would allow ministers to share medical records with organisations that had no link to people’s health.
Mr Grieve said that clauses “tucked away” at the back of the Bill would give ministers “carte blanche to expand data sharing between officials across Whitehall, with local authorities and even with companies in the private sector”. He added: “This should be done with great caution and should not be open sesame to a vast increase in government power.”
David Howarth, the Liberal Democrat justice spokesman, said the data-sharing proposals were “outrageous”. He said: “These provisions will allow all the restriction on data sharing in the ID Cards Act to be overridden and drive a coach and horses through all other restrictions on medical and DNA records. These plans are not confined to government departments and other public authorities. They would allow unlimited data sharing between private sector organisations and government and the private sector, whether in this country or abroad.”
Hat-tip to NO2ID
The great and the good (sic) of the world’s identity technologists will come together in Abu Dhabi in February. The Citizen ID Forum describes itself as “the global symposium on the digitalisation of citizen identification documents”
A similar event held in 2008 was described thus:
“It really gave us the opportunity to see the best technologies available today for the creation of durable biometrics enabled documents, cutting edge data collection and boarder control systems as well as identity management solutions”
The event is being organised by Italian company Wise Media, who publish such delightful reads as Global IDentification, ID People, ID WORLD and OnBoard Technology. They also run other global events such as the ID WORLD International Congress and the Electronic Passport Forum.
This is one company we’ll be keeping our eyes on.
The Government are advertising in the Sunday Times for a commissioner to oversee the controversial ID cards.
The family of illegal immigrants busted last year for running a fake passport factory in London have been jailed.
The police haul included 60 blank Spanish passports, 150 Portuguese passports, 32 Italian passports, 200 blank Portuguese identity cards, 150 UK national insurance cards, £1,400 in cash and a variety of forged utility bills.
The ringleader received a five-and-a-half year sentence, while the rest of the family face between one and three years behind bars.
The government do insist that ID cards will be secure, but I insist that anything man-made can be forged. If a family can forge a variety of EU identity documents using just a couple of computers, scanners printers and an embossing press – it will not take much more to forge an ID card, no matter how clever the technology.
I would like to add my name along with the Barcode Nation as a whole to the following letter from today’s Guardian:
With the approval of parliament, our government is planning to hold more information about us than ever before. It wants a national identity database of every UK citizen, identity cards for many UK residents, DNA records kept for millions of innocent people, and records kept of emails sent (although not their contents), web-pages visited and phone calls made. In arguing that these measures are needed for the protection of society, they assure us that “if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear”.
It has now emerged that the government has drawn up proposals to exclude MPs’ expenses from the Freedom of Information Act (Leaders, 17 January). This despite the fact that the existing law has exposed irregularities in how MPs are using their expenses. This double standard is concerning in and of itself. That it is happening during an economic downturn when we are all being expected to tighten our belts is nothing short of outrageous. That it happens 18 months after Gordon Brown launched his premiership by announcing that parliament should be covered by the Freedom of Information Act is deeply worrying.
MPs will have an opportunity to pass or block the Freedom of Information Order this week. If they pass it, they will do the reputation of parliament tremendous harm. We urge them to see sense and block this regressive measure.
Peter Facey Unlock Democracy, Maurice Frankel Campaign for Freedom of Information, Matthew Elliott TaxPayers’ Alliance, Roger Smith Justice, Phil Booth NO2ID, Anthony Barnett OurKingdom, Neil O’Brien Policy Exchange, Guido Fawkes Order-Order.com, Louise Christian, Stuart Weir Democratic Audit, Sunny Hundal Liberal Conspiracy, Pete Myers EnougthsEnougth.org, Neal Lawson Compass,Simon Davies Privacy International, Henry Porter, Ken Ritchie Electoral Reform Society, Barry White Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, John Kampfner Index on Censorship, Prof AC Grayling, Prof David Miller SpinWatch, Nick Mole PAN UK, Tony Curzon Price Open Democracy, John Jackson
The Guardian has published a very useful guide to the Identity Cards Act 2006. As well as describing the main provisions of the act, the article goes on to discuss the background leading up to it and significant coverage of the criticisms, notably from Liberty and NO2ID.
Well worth a read. It’s also a useful link to pass on to people who utter those words, “but what exactly is the problem with identity cards, if you’ve got nothing to hide you’ve got nothing to fear?”
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has announced his party’s new Commission on Privacy, involving such champions of civil liberties as Shami Chakrabarti and Henry Porter.
“With Britain now among the most watched upon countries in Europe, there has never been a more vital time for proper scrutiny and protection of privacy.
“Under this increasingly authoritarian Government, a combination of intrusion and incompetence has resulted in the steady erosion of our right to privacy and the protection of our personal data.
“This is an exceptionally well-qualified team bringing together experts from a wide range of fields. I am confident that they will work to provide real solutions to check the growing threat to our privacy.”
I truly hope this commission is a genuine attempt to address these issues and come up with workable solutions, rather than a PR stunt.
