By Andy McCue, 6 March 2007 11:14
NEWS
The man in charge of the government's national ID cards scheme has dismissed claims the cards will lead to a personal audit trail of each citizen's movements and transactions.
Privacy groups have claimed records of each time an ID card is used, where and what it is used for will create a vast personal tracking database of every individual on the National Identity Register.
But James Hall, CEO of the Identity and Passport Service (IPS), said in an online webchat on the Downing Street website that most uses of the ID card will probably not involve accessing the NIR and would therefore not create an audit trail.
He said: "I sort of feel 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' with this. The audit trail is an important protection so that citizens can see who has accessed their record and when. But on the other hand, I understand there is also a concern that it could be used to infer something about a pattern of activities.
"However, the Identity Cards Act forbids the provision of the audit log to private sector organisations and it could only be seen by the police or security services in the case of serious crimes."
All about ID
Learn about every aspect of the UK's national ID cards scheme in our A to Z guide.
Hall admitted criminals and fraudsters will target ID cards but said the technology being used will make it harder for them to fake and forge documents.
He said: "The unique aspect of the biometric identifier will be a very important step in preventing criminals obtaining multiple documents under different identities."
A YouGov survey last year showed that 12 per cent of Brits would refuse to get an ID card even if it meant paying a fine or going to prison but Hall said people will voluntarily enrol for ID cards because it will make their day-to-day life easier, when it comes to things like opening a bank account.
He said: "My own view is that ID cards will have to prove themselves by their utility, rather than people being forced to have them. The scheme will be successful if individuals believe it is useful to them to have an ID card in their wallet beside their credit cards, rather than because it is a state requirement."
The IPS is also looking at providing an online mechanism for people to check their entry and data held on the NIR for any inaccuracies but is still assessing whether that can be done securely. Once people have registered their details and biometrics on the NIR they will not be removed - only inaccuracies in the data will be corrected.
Former Home Secretary Charles Clarke also came out fighting for ID cards in a Channel 4 documentary - Fighting Identity Fraud - at the weekend, claiming they will improve the quality of people's lives and enhance security.
Clarke's pro-ID cards view has been shaped in part by the experience of his wife's Estonian grandfather, who was arrested and killed by the KGB in 1941.
He said: "Opponents of ID cards like to talk in extravagant language of a police state run by fascists and so on. I believe passionately that, properly handled, identity data improves the quality of our lives, protects our liberty and enhances our security, and that belief has been shaped at least in part by the experiences of my wife's family, who know what it is to suffer at the hands of the state."
The first ID cards are due to be issued in 2009.
Comments
There are 23 comments. Join the discussion
1. Karen Challinor
ok so under what circumstances will the ID card be used and not have to verify against the NIR ?
and why is use of the ID card necessary in those circumstances ?
I pretty much guarantee NIR access will be needed for anything that takes money out of your bank, if only because the banks will want it, so there's a financial audit trail for a start
and unless you withdraw cash and pay for train tickets with cash, thereby arousing the suspicion of the people behind the counter who want to know why you aren't using your ID card, then you'll use your ID card to buy a ticket which will trigger another financial audit entry
so there is your personal tracking database entry
add this to the proposed GPS tracking in your vehicle and unless you walk everywhere then the NIR will have a fairly comprehensive picture of your life
there's a word for people who follow other people around and want to know intimate details of their everyday lives
they are called stalkers
and there are laws to protect us from them
where are the laws protecting us from our government ?
2. Yogesh Raja
Biometric ID cards will work fine for organisations where everyone concerned is on the database and every point of transaction has equipment to read these cards.
Nationally it is virtually impossible to satisfy both these conditions and hence it is obvious that these cards will fail. In reality they will tempt fraudsters to use fakes of these cards as IDs where there is no reading equipment and hence make bad problems worse by boosting identity fraud.
3. Radical Meldrew
Assuming our present Gulag masters do not retain power; I am horrified at the thought of what they will leave behind in their wake. I'm afraid already!
4. anonymous
To quote Mr Hall, "were damned if we do, and damned if we don't".
This shows how useful the whole idea is - Even the people in power are unsure how the process will work and how far to take it. Their rhetorical, supportive soundbites are unfortunate but they feel obliged to regularly churn them out because they have been told by the government to press on regardless of public opinion.
I have never had any particular political leanings and don’t profess to have any now but I do strongly object to some of the recently proposed oppressive laws. They will undoubtedly change the face of society as we knew it beyond all recognition.
5. Chris Stevens
James Hall is a public servant who will do what he is told to do by his bosses. He does not possess the independence to make such statements about "Nothing to Fear" Those bosses are the same politicians who insisted that the Gulf War II was necessary because of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Those same incompetent fools passed the legislation for Id Cards without providing a convincing case.
About the only benefit is that of the NIR is that it might help identify illegal immigrants if they come to the attention of the authorities.
6. Andrew Meredith
How do I revoke my Fingerprint? Given that even the likes of Mythbusters on TV found a trivial way of lifting and then using someone elses fingerprint; fooling some quite advanced fingerprint pads; I'd like to know which government department is going to issue me with a new one when this happens. If they don't, and people believe 100% in the card, anyone doing this will have my identity 100%. They can do anything as me. If they don't believe the card 100% then what's the point of it. So he's right; damned if you do, damned if you don't.
7. Christopher Quinton
If ID cards do come in, would it not be sensible to include in it, driving licences and NI card details?
This will streamline everything, cut costs and avoid having our wallets turning into bricks, from having too many cards.
This concept is practised in other countries.
8. Richard Gallafent
If true - " Hall said people will voluntarily enrol for ID cards because it will make their day-to-day life easier, when it comes to things like opening a bank account." - he should simply set up an open system, or let anyone else do so, and wait for enrolments.
Perhaps there really is a market gap for provision of identity cards, but if so I find it rather surprising that none of the major corporates (or even minor startups) seems to have spotted it or tried to exploit it.........
9. Jamie
Individuals will find owning an ID card useful not because they 'believe it's useful' but because the state will create a country in which you can't live without owning one!
And an online checking mechanism... !!! I'd laugh but I fear he's not joking. Get ready for the ID phising emails.
10. Graham Coles
So people will 'voluntarily enrol for ID cards because it will make their day-to-day life easier, when it comes to things like opening a bank account.'
Or, read this another way. Your life will be made difficult if you don't use an ID card; the bank may decline you an account, you may not be able to register for a doctor etc. so in that sense, people might start 'voluntarily' enrolling to escape the hell of living in a police state.
I suggest the rest of us just start leaving the country after 2009 if these people are still in power.
As for 'won't create an audit trail', pull the other one.
11. anonymous
Can someone tell me...
... how having a fingerprint (or whatever) biometric on the card will stop criminals/terrorists/fraudsters having multiple cards with multiple identities?
And how will that stop forgers making them?
12. Simon
More spin fomr someone who is either :
1) Out and out telling porkies and knows it.
2) Totally ignorant and unsuited for the job.
If the card isn't verified by back checking against the NIR then the card is worthless - actually worse than that because it will become trivially easy to forge and yet accepted as 'proof' of identity. In that respect, any system that does not check at least 'most' uses against the register is a disaster waiting to happen.
So assuming that in fact many more check will be done than is claimed, the NIR will in fact have an audit trail of our activities - in fact much as previous government comments have stated.
Once we admit that there will be this audit trail, we can be certain, VERY certain, that it will be available with very little difficulty to anyone the government want to allow access to for "law enforcement and national security" purposes. So say hello to fishing expeditions through the database and god help you if you happened to buy a ticket right before/after some terrorist suspect !
Any assurances given by the government about security and access controls can be treated with the derision they deserve. Firstly they will change the rules whenever it suits them. Secondly, they have a track record of security breaches in just about every department that will have access to the NIR and it's audit trail. How can we believe that they will suddenly change the whole face of government security when they have most spectacularly demnstrated their inability to do so in the past ?
13. David Quinn
Agree with all the comments about the practical shortcomings of the ID card mess but I would also like to impugn the personal integrity of its apologists. Back at the beginning of speed cameras the then head of the Met said the public needn't worry, the cameras were meant to catch only flagrant offenders. Now 70% of the driving public have been penalised, often for minor infringments. Either the original intention was the deliberately surreptitious emplacement of the thin end of the wedge or the authorities succumbed to the irresistibly slippery slope. Either way the seemingly overwhelming enchantment with technology will eventually lead to anything which is technically actually possible being done. Not only that but the pols and apparatchiks will seek to justify what they are doing by some spurious moral argument. I doubt if we can stop them but the only way is to stop the first step on the path not to try to arrest the slide in mid slope.
14. Sarah
Whilst I question if an ID card system can ever be made to work so that it is secure and cannot be faked (especially knowing the spin machine's track record), I do not see why we should not have them (assuming that these conditions can be satisfied).
So Karen how do you pay for your train tickets now? Credit card possibly. Surely this means that you can be tracked anyway?
This is where the argument of not having ID cards because of the lack of privacy, breaks down.
15. anonymous
Previous contributors have covered most of the angles surrounding the infamous, very badly thought through idea of ID cards. Which could have only been thought up & pushed, imposed on us by the current bunch of control freaks masquerading as a government. G Brown is possibly an even more extreme control freak than Tony Blah. The present goverment's record on IT contracts that have failed.
Most of which were given to outfits fronted by 'Tony's Cronies'. he list is long and a reprehensible example of the waste of public money that said shower of evil incompetents and control freaks have indulged in since the 1997 General Election. Corruption, corruption, corruption.
Should be the words that are used to decribe the Labour Governments from 1997 - **** !!!!!!!!!
16. Rob
If ID Cards are so wonderful why doesn't the NID scheme in Thailand provide Thais with a better way of life, they still suffer from terrorism (albeit in the south and it has been a lot quieter, either that or no-one cares and doesn't report it).
17. Ruth
It would be nice to be able to believe Mr Hall - he seems a reasonable chap who can understand the publics' concerns. Unfortunately his political masters have lied to us so much (WMDs anyone?) that I can't. So if id cards do come in - which will only be if 75% of voters in the UK suffer from amnesia on next Polling Day - I won't be signing up for one.
18. Jeremy Wickins
""However, the Identity Cards Act forbids the provision of the audit log to private sector organisations and it could only be seen by the police or security services in the case of serious crimes."" Okay, context is all, but this sounds like a contradiction - either there *will* be an audit trail of private sector transactions, and police/security services will be able to see it in the case of serious crimes, or there will *not* be an audit trail, in which case there will be nothing for the police/security services to see. It seems that there may be some ... dissembling ... going on here.
19. anonymous
Can we really trust this government to do what they say they're going to do - or not do?
Apart from this, every activity on a computerised database system is *always* logged in some way. Especially when it's a government one. It would be negligent of any developer not to include such a facility.
People forget that the massacre of one tribe by the other in Rwanda was largely aided by the ability to check a person's affiliation which was detailed on their ID card.
20. anonymous
If ID cards are being pushed as the solution to combat terrorism and crime; how are they going to do this if there _isn't_ a paper trail saying person x did abc on said date? If we have a piece of plastic that basically says "hello, I'm such and such, believe me if you like" then this is no better than the various things that identify us, already in place.
21. Alastair Warren
So just as much of Europe gives up on Communism New Labour implement their own facsimile of it here!
Even when they have the data on who the bad guys are they can't use it, so what use will even more data be to them?
Bearing in mind the comfy existence criminals have out our expense, the Gulag doesn't sound too bad.
22. Guy Herbert (General Secretary, NO2ID)
It isn't true, as Hall implies, that the Act says only police and security services can have access to the data in ways that allow tracking of individuals. All that's restricted is the record of direct ID verifications.
s20 gives the Secretary of State the power to pass the data from the Register, other than the nominal audit-trail, to any "public authority" (of which there are approximately 14,000) as he sees fit - with only the very flimsy protection that they can't have it if ot would be easier for them to get it some other way.
You should note that the information that could be passed on that way would include all the name residential and registration data, and all the numbers from official documents that act as keys to other records. And there's the curious ommission of any explicit or implicit control on how such information is used by the recipients.
All that is without changing the legal structure (and thus categorisation) and content of the Register, which could be done by Statutory Instrument.
23. Nick Cole
How is inaccurate data to be identified? What hoops will people have to go through in the event of a problem.
If the government issued people with the unwanted documents then there would probably be less objections, but we have to pay for this imposition!
If there isn't going to be any significant connection to the NIR what is the point of carrying another piece of plastic when we already have several? Audits do not maintain security. It is the fact that untraceable activity can go ahead on the database which by definition prevents data subjects from checkgin for themselves that causes such unease.
And since everything is forgeable it will do absolutely nothing to improve security or prevent outrages. It may help after the event but it is far too late then.
I wouldn't expect the CEO of the body being paid a substantial sum to implement something that the public doesn't want, to do anything other than highlight the benefits, dubious as they are and ignore the downsides - as always marketing spin is preferred. Emperor's new clothes yet again.