Sky News is running an interview with Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. In it she warns that the number of UK terror plots is rising. She talks of the chilling possibility of a dirty bomb being exploded in a city centre.

The threat from terrorism is indeed serious. People need to be careful. But that's been true for ages. So why this warning just now?

Would it be overly cynical to suggest that the timing has something to do with the recent data loss fiasco? And the growing public pressure to scrap compulsory National Identity Cards?

Well... The same package from Sky goes on to show footage of government research labs where scientists are working on ways to protect us: facial recognition, fingerprinting and other privacy invading biometrics. This, we are told, is not stock footage but a rare glimpse of secret premises - so why did Smith feel the need to authorise such filming just now?

Just in case anyone missed the point, Smith later goes on to explicitly try to defend the ID Card scheme and the huge, intrusive National Identity Register (NIR) on which it will be based.

Yes, the threat from terrorism is real and serious. ID Cards won't prevent terrorism.

To respond to the threat by playing the fear card and turning Britain into a surveillance state is to hand victory to the terrorists.

Tell your MP.

Labels: ID Cards, Jacqui Smith, NIR, uk politics

Chancellor Alistair Darling admitted yesterday that Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has lost personal records of 25 million people - including children. Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said:

"This will be the final blow for the ambitions of the government for the national ID cards scheme — they simply cannot be trusted with people's personal details"

I never expected to agree so strongly with a Tory front bencher.

In the case of this debacle, there is no suggestion of conspiracy or ill intent. It appears to just have been a case of human error. These things happen.

That's the point: these things happen.

If they happen with the benefits records of 25 million people (7.25 million families), how much more often will they happen with the detailed records of all 60 million adults in the UK?

The proposed ID Card scheme will be backed by a vast, intrusive National Identity Register (NIR) that will dwarf the benefits system. The NIR will hold dozens of pieces of personal information on every adult, including an audit trail that amounts to a record of that person's life. Although the NIR won't directly contain bank details, it will contain more than enough information to enable Identity Theft.

No government can be trusted with that much information.

The NIR will be a target for terrorists and organised crime. The government assures us that it will be protected by law, regulation and security. However yesterday's announcement shows that none of this can be enough. Sooner or later accidents will happen.

The only way to prevent NIR data getting into the wrong hands is to prevent the NIR ever being built. The government must now face reality and repeal the Identity Cards Act 2006.

Time to write a few letters.


HMRC has set up a Child Benefit Helpline on 0845 302 1444

Labels: ID Cards, NIR, privacy, uk politics, ukpolitics

The Sunday Mirror today has an encouraging report headlined Brown Scraps I.D. Card Plans. According to the Mirror:

"Gordon Brown is to abandon controversial plans to introduce compulsory ID cards for all.
"Instead, the Prime Minister will focus on tightening up existing anti-terror laws and on new measures to be unveiled in Tuesday's Queen's Speech."

It sounds great, but don't start celebrating yet. This is just one report by one newspaper quoting "Whitehall sources". It's not an official position, probably it's Brown spin doctor floating the idea to see what reaction it gets.

We know how some people react - expect gnashing of teeth from certain tabloids and ex-ministers. We mustn't let them dominate this story, we need to cheer louder than they wail.

So we need to make sure Brown gets the message that abandoning ID Cards will be very popular - and win votes. I for one would be willing to reconsider voting Labour if this report turns out to be true.

What we really need is for a government to repeal the Identity Cards Act 2006 and abandon the National Identity Register (NIR). Until that happens, putting compulsory ID Cards on the back burner is a big step in the right direction.

That's what I'm going to tell Gordon Brown. What about you?

Labels: civil liberties, Gordon Brown, ID Cards, NIR, uk politics

I was planning to make a post congratulating Gordon Brown on his plan for constitutional change. Unfortunately that's been overshadowed by his disastrous performance at his first PMQs.

Brown had the ideal opportunity to break with Blair's plan to impose compulsory National Identity Cards and an invasive National Identity Register (NIR). Asked by Cameron about a border police force Brown could have said that in the light recent events the best use of resources was being re-evaluated. Unfortunately Brown failed to do this and chose to give his strong support to the dangerous ID scheme.

All Brown's positive constitutional reforms will count for nothing against ID Cards and the NIR. Their introduction will bring about a change in the relationship between citizen and state that sees the government issuing us with a licence to live.

That would be a constitutional change for which he would never be forgiven.

Gordon Brown ID Cards Identity Cards NIR UK politics ukpolitics

Labels: Gordon Brown, ID Cards, NIR

Since the government first suggested compulsory ID Cards and the National Identity Register (NIR) some of us have been complaining about "function creep". Civil liberty campaigners and privacy advocates have argued that the use of ID Cards would seep into every facet of our lives.

Such worries have normally been dismissed as paranoid fears, with the government claiming that using ID Cards would in some way be "voluntary". Yet now we have official government recognition that our worries were and are justified.

Liam Byrne MP, the Minister of State for Immigration, Citizenship & Nationality, has made a speech entitled Securing Our Identity: A 21st Century Public Good. Before tackling the details of the speech, let's look at the key message. Byrne maintains he can already see how: "secure identity will suffuse working life, private life and our use of public services". In other words, the NIR will become the all-pervasive surveillence system many of us have been warning about.

According to Byrne:

"Like the railways in the 19th century and the national grid in the 20th century, I think there are strong arguments for thinking of the National Identity System as a modern day public good - that very quickly becomes part and parcel of everyday life in Britain."

How does he reach this bizarre conclusion? By some very dodgy arguments.

Most puzzling is that he seems to think the ID Card will somehow help prevent online credit card fraud - he sprinkles his speech with words like "internet", "online" and "e-commerce". Yet the government's proposed plan would do nothing to prevent online credit card fraud - or any other form of "customer not present" fraud.

He claims that some 282,000 people in the UK have been victims of ID fraud during the last six years - again failing to specify how many of those were victims of old-fashioned credit card fraud that would not have been prevented by ID Cards.

He trots out the discredited estimates for the cost of ID Fraud, estimates which were soundly demolished by The Register.

He states that "In the US there are already 120,000 customers registered to pay at checkouts using biometric technology". In a country of over 300 million people that number is insignificant. The UK government wants to fingerprint 100% of the British population - with or without consent.

Byrne's main argument for the National Identity Scheme appears to be that at the moment we have a number of incompatible schemes springing up for specific purposes - instead he believes we should have one vast central system. I doubt that many security experts would agree that setting up such a "honey pot" is a good idea. He complains about "Systems with different technologies and languages that don't talk to each other" - which from a security perspective is a good thing. Making it difficult to link up information from different systems is the best way to protect that information. Identity theft becomes much easier when every system is keyed on the same unique, lifelong personal ID number.

Byrne goes on to list three attributes that he says any ID system must have: it must be useful, accessible and accountable. The government's plan would certainly be accessible, but useful? Only to solve problems that the government is creating. As to accountable, the level of oversight proposed for the scheme is minimal.

A highly desirable attribute Byrne fails to include is a way of ensuring the individual remains in control of their own information. There's also no mention of personal privacy. The word "privacy" doesn't appear once in the speech.

Byrne concludes with this frightening prediction:

"In 20 years time, I suspect that the National Identity Scheme will be just a normal part of British life – another great British institution without which modern life, whatever it looks like in 2020, would be quite unthinkable"

That's not a Britain I want to see. Which is why I'm a member of NO2ID.


Technorati: ID cards identity cards Liam Byrne NIR UK politics ukpolitics

Labels: ID Cards, Liam Byrne, NIR, privacy