By Jo Best, 7 May 2004 14:50
NEWS A Commons home affairs select committee that tried out iris-scanning technology that the government is hoping to use for ID cards found out yesterday that the eyes definitely don't have it.
Contact lenses, long eyelashes, watery eyes and eye complaints will mean as much as seven per cent of UK citizens render the technology useless. The committee witnessed the scanning failures first hand, with one Liberal Democrat MP, Bob Russell, unable to be scanned by the UK Passport service at the trial because of an eye complaint.
Fears over epilepsy were also raised, with one MP voicing the theory that the scans could provoke fits in sufferers due to the moving lights that the scanners use.
However, watery eyes aside, the Passport Service has seen a four per cent failure rate, which it attributes to users not getting their eyes properly aligned with the iris reader.
Opting for a system of fingerprint reading wouldn't be foolproof either. Labourers, pen pushers and others who have rough hands or faint fingerprints will confuse the readers.
Barclaycard earlier trialled fingerprint reading and found the system would reject those who use hand cream, those who gardened a lot, some Asian women who had fine skin and even those with scratches and scars on their fingers.
The technology will be tested on about 10,000 volunteers in locations across England by this August.
If keeping track of the fingerprints and iris scans of the living wasn't hard enough, Home Secretary David Blunkett said earlier this week that the Home Office will be holding onto UK citizens' personal data even after their death to stop fraudsters assuming the identities of the deceased.
Blunkett also warned fraudsters earlier this week that trying to dodge the system by using false identities when registering would land them in a world of administrative pain.
"If [people] provide false papers then they will have to keep that false identity for the rest of their lives," he said, adding that those who used a false identity "better get their true identity pretty quickly otherwise they are going to find themselves in a real mess to establish a real identity for life."
Comments
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1. Wiv Helde
Being a top "supergrass" I am concerned as to how my change of identity will be implemented and protected under these proposals.
2. anonymous
ID cards are fine for all upright, law abiding citizens who stay out of debt all their lives and never put a foot wrong. As long as we can trust those we elect not to change the law so that it becomes illegal to do the things we enjoy or need. Like driving your car for example, or walking on the Derbyshire moors, or even voting in a democratic election. Don't take any legal right for granted. The more rights you have the less power they have.
3. anonymous
Once upon a time, there was a child who was born into a world of calm. In this childhood he was a michievious youth, who often told little white lies, he had a jolly time. upon his 16th birthday, he had to register to the Man at the top. Still being of a mischievious nature, he told the Man at the top his name, his age, truthfully, but gave his address and date of birth that of a friend. His friend came to the Man at the top, three weeks later, he gave his name, his age, his date of birth, but gave his address of a friend. So this continued for 20 friends. The Man at the top, being all happy at his cleverness, collated his information, and generated lists. He sent out letters to all on his lists, asking them to fill out more information. After a few weeks, The Man at the top, having had no replies, took one of his lists, and decided to visit one of the Names. He knocked on the door of the address on his list, when the door was opened, he asked the occupier why he had not answered his letter, the occupier laughed "I am not who you think I am, someone gave you my address, but I am not that someone" and the occupier shut the door. The Man at the top tried another address, then another, and so on. Lo and behold, he got the same reply from each address. This was born the mis-information. Does this sound familiar?
4. atrimpi
Marty Feldman, Sammie Davis, Jr and Stevie Wonder - now how would they align their irises with the reader?
Would the national health plan pay for it? Do these planners ever think thoughts within the real world? Or are such people thought disposable?