thelinuxlink.net

British government pushes ID Cards - and doubles the cost
By Dave Parrack

http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/20 ... -the-cost/


The British government seems to want to have complete control over all its citizens, whether the people actually want this to happen or not. The idea of having national identity cards is hardly a new one but the way the Labour government are pushing it on to us, and making us pay through the nose for it, has lead many people to resent the idea altogether.

While those of you reading this in the U.S. can rightly regard yourselves as free citizens, those of us in the U.K. are actually subjects of the Queen. We have no constitution and are generally governed by archaic rules dating back hundreds of years.

But the current British government doesn’t seem content with merely having this level of control over us all, and so is pushing through a number of different initiatives to further strip us of our rights as individuals. One of these is the controversial super-database that will contain information on every single conversation that takes place in the U.K., and the other is the ever-so-popular I.D. card.

While some people don’t have a problem with the idea of us all being forced to carry an national identity card, arguing that it’s not a problem for people who have nothing to hide, that isn’t really the point. Owning an I.D. card means all manner of personal and confidential information will be collected and filed about you.

This immediately goes against my personal wishes, with worries of identity theft and government interference in our personal lives making me against the idea. But then you have to add in the fact that the British government hardly has a great track record when it comes to keeping data safe and secure.

BBC News reports that Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has now pushed the idea of I.D. cards by stating that people “can’t wait” for the cards to be introduced. It has also been revealed that the cards would hold biometric data and fingerprints which will double the proposed cost of buying an identity card from £30 ($50) to £60 ($100).

But even though we’re all being asked to pay for the cost of an identity card ourselves, the scheme is still thought to be costing the government billions, with the 10-year forecast having risen from £50 million to £5.1 billion.

Despite criticism from civil liberties groups and both opposition parties, the scheme is set to start this month before being rolled out to include larger groups of people in 2010, and then the rest of us in 2012. Big Brother is alive and well, and currently taking hold in the U.K.

Airstrip One

I have a sneaking suspicion that the push for a U.K I.D. card comes European harmonisation. I moved from the U.K. to mainland Europe about ten years ago. Here on the Continent it's seen as normal to have an I.D. card. When I tell people that I.D. cards don't exist in the U.K. I get a look of bemusement - ".. but how do you manage?", they ask. I explain that we only need a passport when entering or leaving the country. We "manage" by using different forms of data for each agency or company. For me, this is a safer approach because it makes the massive centralisation of data more difficult. Criminals are going to get around any individual system eventually, take the cracked Oyster travel card as an example, and so having one central system is just a weak link, making it easier for them over the long term.