ID Cards in Britain

Bill Thompson

p2pnet.net News View:- It seems that the Home Office will persevere
with its plans to introduce identity cards for the UK population
despite the recent reduction in its majority.

The argument is that since the measure was in the Labour manifesto,
backbench Labour MPs are obliged to support it. This removes the
potential for an embarrassing defeat in the House of Commons and 
also means that the Lords cannot block it.

It's a shame that Charles Clarke didn't use the election period to
reflect on the many well-argued criticisms of the plans he inherited
from David Blunkett. He had the perfect opportunity to rethink the
scheme and fix some of the major flaws, but has declined to take it.

As a result he will face a great deal of opposition in the coming
months from campaigning groups like Liberty and NO2ID, both vehemently
opposed to identity cards in any form.

He may also face some opposition from closer to home.

The Ideal Government weblog is currently running its own online debate
on the proposals in association with the London School of Economics,
and it would be surprising if it provided a ringing endorsement of the
current plans.

Even the left-leaning Institute of Public Policy Research will ask
some hard questions about the way the proposals undermine trust
between the state and its citizens when it publishes its "Manifesto
for a Digital Britain".

The key change that the new card will bring to our lives is that
agents of the state - primarily the police - will be able to stop any
of us while we are going about our normal business and ask for proof
of identity without having to give a reason.

I'm writing this in a cafe in Cambridge. The barista (it's that sort
of cafe) recognises me because I come in here regularly, but he
doesn't know who I am. I always pay cash, I don't wear a name badge
and I generally come here alone to work, so nobody is saying my name
in conversation.

Of course, there's CCTV outside on the street and an observant
operator could track me back to my car and check the registration
number. My fingerprints are on the [UK Pound]5 note I paid with, 
and my DNA is all over the cup I've just been drinking from - but 
if anyone came up to me and asked me my name I could refuse to tell 
them.

So while there are limits to the degree of privacy I have, most of 
the time I do indeed go about my life unobserved and unremarked.

Once we have identity cards that must be produced on demand this
feeling will vanish, and it will be a significant loss. It will, for
one thing, create a much greater sense of "us and them" when it comes
to our interaction with the state, even though we live in a democracy.

But whether or not we actually have cards to carry is less important
than the proposed national identity register, the vast database that
will store all our personal details and allow cards to be issued and
verified.

The register, if it is implemented as planned, will mark a fundamental
shift in the balance between public and private information. If it
works - and large-scale public sector IT projects don't have a good
track record - then it will seriously threaten our civil liberties.
And if it doesn't, and ends up insecure or inaccurate, then it could
create massive potential for abuse, identity theft and injustice.

Not exactly a win-win situation.

A major problem is that while the government has passed data
protection laws to control the use of personally identifiable data 
by the private sector, it believes it can do what it wants in the 
name of national security or mere administrative convenience.

So apart from biometric data like iris scans and fingerprints, the
register will also hold details of where we live - or used to live 
- and also "information about numbers allocated to [the registered
individual] for identification purposes... and documents which they
relate".

That jargon means that details of my passport, driving license number,
NHS number and National Insurance number will all be linked, giving
anyone with access to the database a pretty comprehensive profile of
me.

It gets better, because the Home Secretary is allowed to pass the
information held on the register on to other parties without telling
us, and we will have no right to know if or how this data is being
used.

If Nectar tried this then even our impotent and under-staffed
Information Commissioner would have something to say, but Charles
Clarke seems to think that he can bounce this unwarranted infringement
of each person's right to control how their personal data is used
through Parliament and into law.

He may get his way, despite the forces ranged against him. But the
passage of the legislation will the mark the beginning of a concerted
battle to ensure that the identity register is built and maintained
properly, that data protection rights are respected and that we, as
citizens, are able to hold our government to account for what it does
with our data.

Bill Thompson - andfinally.com
[Thompson is a UK-based writer and broadcaster]

(Saturday 21st May 2005)

p2pnet's contents are under Creative Commons License, unless otherwise stated.

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Source: P2PNET - http://p2pnet.net/story/4918


Cheers, Steve..

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