ID cards: "A disaster waiting to happen"

The man in charge of the government's national ID cards scheme quashed claims earlier this week that the cards will lead to a Big Brother state with each citizen's movements and transactions monitored.

James Hall, Identity and Passport Service (IPS) CEO, said in an online webchat on the Downing Street website that most uses of the ID card will probably not involve accessing the National Identity Register (NIR) and would therefore not create an audit trail.

This sparked a furore of responses from silicon.com readers, with many pointing out an ID card system without the ability to back-check against the NIR would be a "disaster waiting to happen".

One reader said if ID cards are being pushed as the solution to combat terrorism and crime then he does not understand how the government will do this if there isn't a paper trail recording an individual's activities.

Another reader pointed out the need to use the NIR with the ID card scheme and said: "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."

The government ditched its plans of a single mega-database to hold all ID card information last year with three existing systems proposed to hold the NIR data instead.

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Hall also 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.

But the majority of readers were sceptical. One reader said life will be made difficult if you don't use an ID card - the bank may refuse you an account, you may not be able to register for a doctor and so on.

He added: "So in that sense, people might start 'voluntarily' enrolling to escape the hell of living in a police state."

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.

This raised further security fears with readers. As one said: "Get ready for the ID phishing emails."