By Jo Best, 29 July 2004 14:45
NEWS A Home Affairs select committee report due to be published tomorrow is expected to condemn David Blunkett's plans for ID cards as being too fuzzy, financially unsound, badly planned and generally going a bit too far.
A leaked copy of the report, seen by The Guardian, lists a catalogue of objections by MPs to the ID card bill over both its theory and its execution. Among the chief concerns expressed by the MPs is that too much secrecy exists around the plans and that there is a risk of "function creep" - whereby data held on citizens starts to be accessed by other government authorities.
The select committee is so concerned that it is requesting government be given extra powers to make sure the ID card plans don't get out of hand. The committee also warns that the cards are being used by the government as a front to introduce a national fingerprint database and could even be cross-referenced with images from CCTV cameras in the future.
The committee says it's not opposed to the cards in principle but believes the draft government bill is inadequate and should be revamped before being put before parliament.
The report records fears that private companies will demand access to the database. It also says that the intelligence services will have "nearly unfettered access to information on the database without the knowledge of the ID card holder".
The MPs also aren't entirely convinced the biometrics are trustworthy, saying that using the technology can prove uncomfortable for users and needs greater testing.
Comments
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1. Mike Taylor
We are already monitored by NI numbers, new style driving licenses and passports, but these are so easily forged that they are often only of use to criminals and others seeking to obtain money from the Government. What we want is an EXTREMELY secure form of ID with DNA taken at birth, so we have a complete and accurate national DNA data base register. Then we want properly vetted people in control and the system used strictly but fairly for legitimate purposes. If a crime is then committed an incalcuable amount of time should be saved in identifying the culprit. Anyone leading an acceptable life should have nothing to fear from ID cards. Or am I hoping for UTOPIA?
2. Duane Phillips
As a reply to the previous post. Why not go the whole hog and RFID everything you own.
Just imaging you accidentally drop litter in the street the rfid will be cross referenced back to your ID and bang automatic instant fine in the post.
Your car could be tagged and next time you exceed the speed limit bang automatic instant fine.
Why not go the the whole hog and have a police state. Everything you do monitored. This all smells of 1984. Your life run by control freaks.
How is an ID card going to stop terrorism. Look at the FBI building in Oklahoma, the terrorist was a US citizen.
Will an ID card stop me from thinking up some terrorist scheme because I'm disgruntled with someone/something? Oh no, I have an ID card better not strap those explosives to my body and get on a bus. People will know who I am after I've detonated it.
3. Karen Challinor
There's always a loophole, for example these 'properly vetted people in control', who vets them ? and then who vets those and so on ?
Funny thing I've been saying it's badly thought out, the technology isn't there, that every jumped up official will be able to see my entire history, that it's ill defined etc.. sice I first heard about it.
I guess writing to your MP does work occasionally
4. Duane Phillips
Back to the technology of ID cards, it doesnt matter how clever you make them with regards to forgery. If a man has invented it a man can break or copy it.
5. CPK Smithies
With a foolproof biometric - should such a thing exist - ID cards will be more, not less, dangerous to the individual. The danger comes from people who can forge the cards - so putting their biometrics on to a card with Honest Joe's ID on it. They will then be able to generate "incontrovertible" evidence that Honest Joe committed this and that crime.
Of course, some people do believe in foolproof technology. This is fine, but I do not see why they should inflict their irrational prejudice on the rest of us!
6. Paul Wilson
I work in IT, and the main point I try to make to people I deal with, ie customers, other users, friends, relatives, is be vigilant. If ID's can be STOLEN with you being in control, and being careful (this has happened to a few people who are vigilant), then think how easy it will be if the Government have even more control, when you have no control over who see's your data.
For many years now, there have been attempts to consolidate the information between the NHS trusts, this has proved fruitless, because the Boys at Westminister are incapable of making a decision within a 3 year period. Then when they have made a decision, 6 months after, they want to change it again. Look at the monumental mistakes with the passport office, the cost will start off at a reasonable price, then soar to the scale of the millenium dome. All it will take to crash an idea is to tell a few porkies, leave a few details out, be vague. By the time the discover you exist and where, you will be six feet under.