ID Card Free Zone
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb | |
ID Card Free Zone RSS News
ID Card Free Zone Archived News
|
15/05/2007 |
ID card will be needed to vote, says UK election watchdog - Use it to fix the bit that isn't broken... - John Lettice - The Register - Unexpected support for ID cards has come from Electoral Commission chairman Sam Younger, who has told the Times that photo ID should be required at polling stations, and that if (or, in the view of the current Government, when) ID cards become compulsory they would "undoubtedly" be applied in elections. "I think there's a very strong case for making sure we go down the road of tightening up the identification of polling station voting as well [as postal ballots]" he said. Younger's statements are somewhat eccentric, even bizarre, given that ID cards could most readily be used to prove identity in the part of the ballot system where it's least necessary - i.e. at the polling station, where there is no evidence of widespread fraud.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Brown backs off ID card scheme - Contractor UK - The momentum whipped up by the government to arm every Briton with an identity card has been setback by an unlikely opponent - the Prime Minister-in-waiting, Gordon Brown. Disclosures obtained by The Times reveal that the chancellor has refused to approve the overall budget for the scheme, thereby leaving the option open to scrap it if he becomes PM. By saying the Home Office can only spend a limited amount to develop it, John Reid, the Home Secretary, will need to seek permission before the issuing of cards can begin.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Cautious Brown keeps option of scrapping ID card scheme - Richard Ford - The Times - Gordon Brown has left open the option of scrapping the identity card scheme if he becomes Prime Minister. The Chancellor has refused to approve the multimillion-pound budget for the whole scheme and has given the Home Office permission to spend only a set amount of money towards developing it, it was disclosed yesterday. The overall cost, set at £5.4 billion by the Home Office, will exceed the spending limit set by the Treasury.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Biometrics errors 'too high' - Karen Dearne - Australian IT - Electronic Frontiers Australia has called on the federal Government to demonstrate whether its planned access card biometrics system will work. "Human Services (Department) claims that one-to-many biometric face-matching against a very large database is accurate enough to detect fraudulent registrations, but this is not borne out by recent evaluations of the technology," EFA's Greg Taylor said. "The performance of facial recognition systems has improved in recent years, but error rates are still very high. Several recent studies have dismissed facial recognition as not feasible for large-scale databases."
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Government predicts one third of people will resist ID checks - But Home Office says 'pah, the figures are out of date' - OUT-LAW.COM - The Register - One in three people will resist identity checks according to Government figures. The just-released statistics predict a widespread revolt over identity cards, but the Home Office has dismissed the figures as irrelevant and out of date. In 2004 Mark Oaten, the then Liberal Democrat spokesman on home affairs, asked for figures to be published on the assumptions being made by Government about ID cards' use. The Government refused. Oaten's request was backed by the Information Commissioner and an Information Tribunal and the figures have now been released. The figures show that 30 per cent of people were predicted by the Government to refuse to co-operate with ID card checks. The papers, published by the Department for Work and Pensions, show that officials expected that 60 per cent of people would carry an ID card even if it became compulsory to own but not carry one.
Politics delays ID card tender - Crosby report to benefit from 'clear air' of new PM, say sources - Sarah Arnott - Computing - The government's ID card procurement will go ahead slightly later than planned so it can benefit from the 'clear air' of a new prime minister, say sources. The formal procurement notice published by the Identity and Passport Service last week says tendering for framework deals for the national biometric ID plan is expected to begin around June. Earlier plans anticipated an April or May start. The process has been delayed to fit in with the publication of a Treasury-commissioned report on potential private sector uses of the scheme, which has itself been deferred to fit in with the change of prime minister.
Yet Another Final Blow for ID Cards - David Cuthbertson - Adam Smith Institute Blog - There was yet another blow for the government's ID card scheme on Sunday as a Freedom of Information request reported in the Sunday Times showed that the government itself believes that 15m people will refuse to produce the cards on request or to supply the biometric information required. It is baffling that anyone still supports the ID card scheme, and even more incredible that Labour is promising to make them compulsory if re-elected. The problems that have already surfaced include spiralling costs, the easy of access to fraudulent documents which would allow someone to claim a card, the lack of any plausible circumstance under which they would prevent crime and the inglorious history of large government IT projects. On top of that we have the plain fact that ID cards represent a massive breach of our right to privacy and an unnecessary intrusion into our lives.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Schools' bid to fingerprint kids - Tom Harvey - The Sun - Almost six million children at 17,000 schools could have their fingerprints taken. Soaring numbers of schools require pupils to have biometric checks to register, borrow books or buy food. It emerged that less than one quarter of local education authorities have banned collecting fingerprints. The rest either allow it or have no policy at all, potentially allowing headteachers to gather biometric data from around 5.9 million English schoolchildren as young as four. Plans are already underway to hold details of all children in a single register to be launched next year and Tony Blair has said he wants all youngsters monitored for signs of criminality. Damien Green, Tory home affairs spokesman, said: "Most parents would be horrified to know their children might be fingerprinted without their knowledge and without knowing what happens to that information in the future."
Schools may fingerprint six million children - Nigel Morris - The Independent - Almost six million children at 17,000 schools could have their fingerprints taken, intensifying fears of the growth of a "surveillance society" where personal information is gathered from cradle to grave. As soaring numbers of schools require pupils to have biometric checks to register in the morning, buy canteen food or borrow a book, it emerged that less than one-quarter of local education authorities have banned collecting fingerprints.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
'Millions to rebel' over ID cards - Robert Winnett and David Leppard - The Times - The government is predicting that some 15m people will revolt against Tony Blair's controversial ID card scheme by refusing to produce the new cards or provide personal data on demand. The forecast is made in documents released by the Home Office under the Freedom of Information Act. The papers show ministers expect national protests similar to the poll tax rebellions of the Thatcher era, with millions prepared to risk criminal prosecution. Opposition MPs said the new documents proved their case that the programme would never work. David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said: "This will cripple the system. Fifteen million is a massive number. What the Home Office is accepting in private, but refuses to accept in public, is that a massive number of ordinary law-abiding citizens simply will not go along with their scheme."
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Profile - James Hall - Playing his cards right - PublicFinance.co.uk - Vivienne Russell - James Hall is so convinced of the benefits of ID cards he left the private sector to head the agency launching them.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
- SpyBlog - The Department for Work and Pensions has finally published information it was withholding regarding the Identity Cards Scheme, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the then LibDem Home Affairs spokesman Mark Oaten MP
|
|
15/05/2007 |
A third 'will refuse ID checks' - BBC - One in three people are expected not to cooperate with identity card checks, Home Office papers from 2004 suggest. Papers revealed under information laws show officials have worked on the basis 60% of people who have a card would be expected to carry it with them. They assume another 10% would confirm their ID via fingerprint or eye scans but 30% "will refuse" to voluntarily show their card or biometric data.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
ID cards for immigrants to strengthen UK security - Politics.co.uk - Foreign nationals will be forced to carry ID cards, as part of new measures to strengthen border controls, the Home Office announced today. Immigration minister Liam Byrne said foreign nationals will need ID cards to work or claim benefits, restricting access to those qualified. The measure was announced as part of a raft of measures to tighten security, alongside new visa controls and the increased use of biometric data. "Compulsory ID cards for foreign nationals will be a vital buttress of our defences giving businesses and public services the choice to check whether someone is who they say they are," Mr Byrne said. However, human rights group Liberty has raised concerns the measures mark the first stage of a nationwide rollout of compulsory ID cards. Furthermore, Liberty's policy director Gareth Crossman warned: "When ethnic minorities are repeatedly targeted to present identification the end result is resentment and discontent."
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Big Brother is harming you, warns report - Philip Johnston - Daily Telegraph - The growth of CCTV cameras, supermarket loyalty cards and the proposed ID scheme risk turning Britain into a Big Brother state, a report said yesterday. Researchers said that far from being reassuring, the levels of surveillance could put lives in danger. The Royal Academy of Engineering painted a stark future where personal details could be hijacked and abused by terrorists and criminals. It also suggested that private health records or even shopping habits could be used against people. "It is not entirely absurd to imagine that supermarkets' loyalty card data might one day be used by the Government to identify people who ignored advice to eat healthily, or who drank too much, so that they could be given a lower priority for treatment by the NHS," said the study. "The individual citizen is in no position either to accept or reject surveillance. This heightens the sense that we may be developing a 'Big Brother' society."
ID cards top your list of brainless laws - Philip Johnston - Daily Telegraph - The Identity Cards Act and human rights legislation are the laws that most Daily Telegraph readers would like the Tories to repeal if they win power.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Blunkett is given job at identity card firm - US company is in the running to run controversial scheme in Britain - Gaby Hinsliff - The Observer - David Blunkett has taken a job advising a company interested in bidding to run Britain's controversial identity cards programme, a policy he was the architect of and championed in government. The former Home Secretary took up the post for the Texas-based security firm Entrust, which specialises in securing digital information and combating identity theft, earlier this month. The firm already provides software for the Spanish national ID card system and has formally registered an interest in the British project.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
200 questions to get your passport - Philip Johnston - Daily Telegraph - First-time passport applicants aged over 16 will face a list of up to 200 personal questions when compulsory interviews are introduced later this spring. Hundreds of thousands of people, mainly teenagers, will be grilled about their lives by a Government official in a dry run for the introduction of ID cards.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Parliament must control this passport to snoop - Daily Telegraph - Holders of a British passport, even the EU-friendly claret-coloured ones introduced in 1995, still bask in the comforting knowledge that Her Britannic Majesty's Secretary of State "requests and requires" all those whom it may concern to "allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance" as well as affording "such assistance and protection as may be necessary". But for a new generation of passport holders, such a stirring validation of the right to travel is about to be transformed into something very different. For new passports - issued no longer by the Passport Office, but by the Orwellian-sounding Identity and Passport Service (IPS) - will be little more than a template for the new national ID card.
New passport applicants must go for interviews · Information to be checked against personal dossier · Scheme breaks promises say anti-ID campaigners - Alan Travis - The Guardian - More than 600,000 people a year applying for a passport for the first time will from May have to attend a compulsory interview up to 20 miles from their home, it was announced yesterday. The new applicants, half of whom will be aged 16 to 19, will be asked to prove their identity by responding to a stock of about 200 possible questions on their family and financial history.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
ID cards: 'openness would damage project reviews' - Bill Goodwin - Computer Weekly - Publication of independent reviews into the government's ID cards project would set a precedent that would lead to open confrontation between government departments, a freedom of information tribunal heard last week. Peter Gershon, the former civil servant responsible for introducing Gateway reviews of government IT projects, said that publication of reports into the ID cards programme would seriously undermine the confidentiality essential to the success of the Gateway review scheme. Gershon, former head of the Office of Government Commerce, said that any publication of adverse comments in reports would provoke a backlash from the government department under scrutiny. "They will say 'we will go public and make it clear we don't agree with the report,'" he said. "The whole department will muster its defences and resources, so it becomes public that we don't agree with it."
10,000 passports go to fraudsters - BBC - An estimated 10,000 passports were issued to fraudulent applicants in 12 months, the Home Office has said. The documentation was given out by the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) in the year up to September 2006. Home Office minister Joan Ryan said the IPS had 16,500 fraudulent applications during the 12 month period, 10,000 of which went undetected.
UK gov says broken passport system justifies ID cards - No it doesn't, say opposition - Mark Ballard - The Register - Rough fraud figures published by the Identity and Passport Service today have become the government's latest justification for its identity card plans. The Home Office estimated that 10,000 fraudulent passport applications were approved in the 11 months to October 2006. But its figures were only partial and the Home Office refused to publish more details.
Passport failures do not justify ID cards - Nick Clegg - Liberal Democrats - Commenting on the news that 10,000 passports were given to bogus applicants last year, including two handed out to convicted terrorists, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP said: "Ministers have claimed the Passport Service is the jewel in the Home Office crown, yet this revelation shows that even here there are failings that are worse than we could have possibly feared. Something surreal is afoot when the Government advertises its own failings in order to make the case for new Labour's grandiose ID card scheme."
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Interviews for passports 'vital' - BBC - Interviews for first-time passport applicants will be "vital" in helping crack identity fraud, officials say. The Identity and Passport Service has defended changes which mean that from April first-time adult applicants will be called to a face-to-face interview. Some 69 centres are being set up across the UK, with round-trip journey times for applicants of up to two hours.... Campaign group NO2ID said the move was to aid the introduction of ID cards, not primarily to make passports more secure.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Legal fight over ID cards secrecy begins - Bill Goodwin - Computer Weekly - Government lawyers this week began a legal battle to prevent the publication of confidential reports into the feasibility of the £5.4bn ID cards programme. The Office of Government Commerce, a Treasury agency, is pitting itself against the information commissioner in a five-day hearing that will determine whether it has the right to withhold the reports from public scrutiny. The case, being conducted at the Information Tribunal in London, could set a legal precedent that would force government departments to routinely publish Gateway reviews into the progress and potential risks of public IT projects.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Your ID card details will be sold to banks - James Slack and Sue Reid - Daily Mail - Banks and other businesses are to be sold access to personal information stored on the Government's ID cards database. Ministers want to raise hundreds of millions towards the £540million a year cost of running the controversial scheme. The Government is already facing a backlash over charging people £93 each for an ID card - which will contain 49 different pieces of personal data. Now ministers are planning to charge companies around 60p a time to check details held on the giant "big brother" database. They hope for up to 770million "verifications" each year.
ID card details for sale to banks - James Slack and Sue Reid - Daily Mail
Ministers want to raise hundreds of millions towards the £540m a year cost of running the controversial scheme. The Government is already facing a backlash over charging people £93 each for an ID card - which will contain 49 different pieces of personal data. Now ministers are planning to charge companies around 60p a time to check details held on the giant 'big brother' database. They hope for up to 770m 'verifications' each year.
Question of trust - David Reed - Precision Marketing Magazine - Who do you trust more - Tesco or the Government? In making the case for identity cards, Tony Blair recently argued that supermarkets hold far more personal information on customers than would ever appear on the national identity database. His point seemed to be that if consumers were willing to trust a commercial organisation with lots of data, why shouldn't they also trust the Government? But you do not have to be a conspiracy nut to see the problems with that argument. Loyalty cards offer a clear, transparent value exchange in which shoppers agree to be identified at point of purchase in return for discounts and offers. Quite what the value exchange might be with an identity card is much harder to see.
Information Tribunal hearing of our OGC Gateway Review case starts today - SpyBlog - Starting today, the Information Tribunal is due to hear the Appeal by the Office for Government Commerce against the Information Commissioner's Decision Notice which ruled in our favour, which ordered them to fully disclose the early (and now out of date) Gateway Reviews of the Home Office's Identity Cards Programme.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
"Big Brother" Gaining Ground in Great Britain - Bryan Terry - Associated Content - Maybe George Orwell was on to something... It seems that "Big Brother" is gaining ground in Great Britain. Starting in 2009, in order to apply for a passport, Britons will be required to register their fingerprints, facial scans and a host of personal information such as second homes, drivers licenses and insurance policy numbers. If they do this, they will receive a national ID card and then their passport. However, the program is not mandatory. The British government has said that the program is voluntary and that people will be allowed to opt out. However, those that do will be denied receiving a British passport.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
ID cards: "A disaster waiting to happen" - Best of Reader Comments: 'The gov hasn't thought this through' - Gemma Simpson - 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".
Don't like ID cards? Hand over your passport - James Slack - Daily Mail - Anybody who objects to their personal details going on the new "Big Brother" ID cards database will be banned from having a passport. James Hall, the official in charge of the supposedly-voluntary scheme, said the Government would allow people to opt out - but in return they must "forgo the ability" to have a travel document. With one in every eight people saying they will refuse to sign-up, up to five million adults could effectively be refused permission to leave the country.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Nothing to fear over ID cards privacy, says passport chief - Identity database 'won't create personal audit trail'... - Andy McCue - Silicon.com - 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.
Passport blunder pay-outs top £350,000 - Pam Caulfield - 24dash - Frustrated travellers have received more than £350,000 in compensation for blunders by UK passport offices over the past three years, it was revealed today. Pay-outs for those who suffer miseries such as missing dream holidays due to errors have risen by 63% during the same period, according to official figures.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Your questions to the head of ID card scheme - James Hall, chief of the Identity and Passport Service - 10 Downing Street
UK biometric passports succumb to hack - Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service - Tech World - A security expert has cracked one of the U.K.'s new biometric passports, embarrassing the British government which has touted as a way of cutting down cross-border crime and illegal immigration. The attack, which uses a common RFID reader and customised code, siphoned data off an RFID chip from a passport in a sealed envelope, said Adam Laurie, a security consultant who has worked with RFID and Bluetooth technology. The attack would be invisible to victims, he said.
'Safest ever' passport is not fit for purpose - Sue Reid - The Daily Mail - They are the "safest ever", according to the Government. But the Daily Mail has revealed how easily a person's identity can be stolen from new biometric passports. In just four hours, the Mail hacked into a new biometric passport and stole the details a people trafficker or illegal migrant would need to set up a life in Britain.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
DNA 'will be stolen' from ID cards - Kirsty Buchanan - Daily Express - Former Home Secretary Charles Clarke has called for DNA details to be put on the identity cards database - despite warnings it will be accessed by crooks.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
The truth about Charles Clarke's ID card claims - Will Stewart and Elizabeth Sanderson - The Daily Mail
|
|
15/05/2007 |
UK gov scraps youth ID card - IT problems abort pilot - Mark Ballard - The Register - The government has scrapped its carrot and stick id card for yoofs after realising that the costs of developing its computer system were beginning to outweigh the benefits it could deliver.
UK ID card scheme 'at risk' - Costs could double, IT consultancy warns - Tash Shifrin - Computerworld UK - The UK government's ID cards scheme is at risk because of huge business process demands that will hit the system - at a level comparable to the NHS's National Programme for IT (NPfIT), analysts have warned.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
No more secrets - Tony Blair insists his government is not building a Big Brother-style super-database. But all the talk of 'perfectly sensible' reforms and 'transformational government' masks a chilling assault on our privacy - Steve Boggan - The Guardian - Once you have a national identity card, a number and an audit trail, all of this - and everything every government department, bank or supermarket has on you - could be accessed, without your knowledge or consent, by the security services, justified by their slightest suspicion of you. And the national identity scheme commissioner, the watchdog without teeth, wouldn't be able to so much as growl.
ID cards 'as risky as NHS IT project' - Bill Goodwin - Computer Weekly - The government's proposed ID card scheme is likely to be as risky as the NHS National Programme for IT, and could cost twice the estimated £5.4bn price tag, an independent review has concluded. The review, the first to analyse the project based on the expected demand for ID card services, concludes that it is at "significant risk" of performance failure, which could delay the project and push up costs.
National database discussed - QAS - Government officials have been keen to implement a huge national database as part of its ID cards scheme, but there have been many different objections to that approach, one of which has been the importance of maintaining a high level of data quality to ensure that people are not attributed with wrong information and do not slip through the system. "Data sharing on a national scale is going to be very challenging, with many data quality and integrity issues and barriers - it's unlikely to be achieved," explained Sarah Burnett, senior research analyst with the Butler group. Speaking to PCPro, she said that the problems of data quality are such that it will be difficult for the government to implement such a scheme.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
|
Cameron: Swap ID cards for border police - Cameron unveils border police plans |
Cameron: Swap ID cards for border police - Cameron unveils border police plans - Politics.co.uk - The Conservatives have unveiled plans to create a dedicated border police force in the UK. If elected, the Tories would cancel the government's ID card scheme and use the money to establish a single organisation to police the nation's "porous" borders. David Cameron outlined the proposal at a visit to Wapping police station in east London. Accompanied by shadow home secretary David Davis, he claimed that ID cards would "waste" up to £20 billion without securing borders and should instead be replaced by an integrated border police force.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
MPs argue over ID card pricing - Seventy per cent of biometric scheme costs to be spent anyway upgrading passports, says Home Office - VNUnet - The government is being accused of inflating the price of biometric passports to disguise the cost of its identity card scheme. The issue was raised in the Commons this week by Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg after Home Office minister Liam Byrne said 70 per cent of the cost of ID cards 'will be spent anyway on introducing biometric passports'.
Tories fuel further debate on ID cards - Industry insiders say the row is a storm in a teacup - sarah arnott - Computing - Last week's call from shadow home secretary David Davis for MPs to oversee the contractual arrangements for the government's ID cards scheme is the latest in the wrangle between the Conservative party and IT trade body Intellect. But industry insiders describe the row as a storm in a teacup, and dismiss claims that the row has constitutional implications.
Blair in fresh row over ID cards - RINF - A new row has erupted over identity cards after it emerged police will be able to use the national database to check fingerprints found at crime scenes. Prime Minister Tony Blair was accused of "changing his tune" on ID cards after telling opponents of the practice that the move would help solve crimes - including 900,000 outstanding investigations. Mr Blair's comments came in an e-mail to 28,000 people who signed a petition demanding plans for ID cards are dropped.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
ID card data for crime checks sparks new row - The Daily Mail - Tony Blair is facing fresh criticism over identity cards after saying police would be able to use the national database to check fingerprints found at crime scenes. The Prime Minister was accused of "changing his tune" on ID cards after using the argument to reassure opponents of the controversial scheme. The Government insisted there was nothing new in his comments and that the police provision was set out explicitly in legislation passed by Parliament.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Collar the lot of us! Blair adds whole UK to police suspect list - You're on an identity parade. Forever - John Lettice - The Register - The National Identity Register will allow police to add the entire adult population of the UK to their suspect list, giving them the opportunity to check fingerprints left at scenes of crime against those collected from ID card and passport applicants, says Tony Blair. Nor are fingerprints in other EU countries necessarily safe - the introduction of biometric technology, he adds, will "improve the flow of information between countries on the identity of offenders.
Proposed ID card data for crime checks sparks new row - The Daily Mail - Tony Blair is facing fresh criticism over identity cards after saying police would be able to use the national database to check fingerprints found at crime scenes.
Blair under fire over police access to ID card database - Press Association - The Guardian - Tony Blair faced fresh criticism over identity cards today after saying that the police would be able to use the national database to check fingerprints found at crime scenes. The prime minister was accused of "changing his tune" on ID cards after using the argument to reassure opponents of the controversial scheme
|
|
15/05/2007 |
|
Labour will force everyone to give fingerprints at ID card interview centres |
Labour will force everyone to give fingerprints at ID card interview centres - Patrick Hennessy - Sunday Telegraph - Ministers plan to force all adults to travel miles at their own expense to fingerprint scanning units so their details can go onto an identity card database. From 2009, everyone will have to attend one of 69 "interview centres", whose locations are revealed today for the first time. People without their own transport, such as the elderly and the less well off, will be hit hardest by having to make round trips that in some cases will be more than 100 miles. Somebody living in Cambridge would be forced to make a 62-mile round trip to Bury St Edmunds, while people in Blackpool would have to travel 54 miles to Blackburn and back. In Stranraer, residents face a 128-mile round trip to Kilmarnock.
Interviews for passports 'vital' - BBC - Interviews for first-time passport applicants will be "vital" in helping crack identity fraud, officials say.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
ID Cards and The Environment - Tim Worstall Blog - Hhhmmm. 60 million people, say, average 50 mile round trip, 150 grammes CO2 per litre petrol used, 4 litres petrol per person (urban driving maybe?)....36,000 tonnes CO2 emitted.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Dangers of the UK Borders Bill - Frances Webber - IRR - A leading immigration lawyer points out the dangers in the UK Borders Bill. The UK Borders Bill, which had its second reading on 5 February 2007, continues the trend of previous legislation, giving immigration officers further powers, decreasing the rights of those subject to immigration control and creating further duties and penalties for them. Its effect is bound to be to reinforce xenophobia and popular racism - unless the draconian nature of some of its provisions leads to a groundswell of anti-racist protest. Under the Bill, anyone subject to immigration control must have a biometric ID card.
Tech firms tangle with Tories on ID cards - Conservatives put big business in its place - Mark Ballard - The Register - The IT industry has found itself in a handbagging spat with shadow home secretary David Davis over the Conservative party's plans to ditch ID cards should they win power from Labour. Davis' "official warning" to government said a democratic clause should be written into contracts with ID system suppliers so they could be scrapped if the electorate demanded so.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Watchdog warns of new passport flaws · Technology flaws could delay security checks · Limited warranty may push up costs
Alan Travis - The Guardian - New flaws in the government's national identity card scheme have emerged with the disclosure today that the microchips in 3m passports, which are supposed to be valid for 10 years, only carry a 24-month warranty. Whitehall spending watchdogs also warn today that much of the technology surrounding the new ePassports is still unproven and could lead to passenger delays at airports, raising doubts about their immediate security benefits.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Officers to be given powers of arrest and detention - Alan Travis - The Guardian - New legislation which will in effect turn the immigration service into a quasi-police force, with powers of arrest and detention for individual officers, was published yesterday by Liam Byrne, the immigration minister. The borders bill will also make it compulsory for all non-European foreign nationals living in Britain to apply for a biometric identity card, with fines of up to £1,000 if they do not have one
|
|
15/05/2007 |
|
Immigrant ID card to recruit employers as UK border police - Home Office preps UK pass laws |
Immigrant ID card to recruit employers as UK border police - Home Office preps UK pass laws - John Lettice - The Register - Immigration minister Liam Byrne has taken the wraps off the long-predicted (in these parts, at least) plan to hit immigrants in the first wave of ID cards, and to force employers to police the system. David Blunkett first trailed this scheme in November 2004, while an IPPR report last year recommended hitting immigrants with ID cards by 2008.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
U-turn cuts risks of ID card scheme - Bill Goodwin - ComputerWeekly.com - The Home Office was quick to deny a u-turn when it published its new Strategic Action Plan just before Christmas. But it is clear that the national identity cards project will now be radically different, and simpler, than originally envisaged. In the words of one industry commentator, "It is a u-turn of giant proportions.".
Smaller project, same price for ID card plan - Bill Goodwin - ComputerWeekly.com - The decision by the government to radically simplify the technology behind biometric ID cards will not reduce the cost of the £5.4bn programme, a senior official has disclosed. The government has postponed plans to build a dedicated computer system to hold biographical details of the population and has dropped plans to record iris scans of the population, it emerged last month.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Iris scans dropped from ID card plans - Philip Johnston - The Daily Telegraph -Plans to use iris biometrics for the Government's national identity card scheme have been shelved due to cost and technical uncertainties. Ministers had previously said that in order to be fully secure, the database would need both irises, all 10 fingerprints and a photograph from each individual entered on to the system. But a "strategic plan" published last month says iris scanning will only be "an option". Privately, officials say the scheme will be based on fingerprints and a digital photograph only.
Your shout: ID card problems, toxic hardware and struggling police - Change to ID cards plan is really the same old thing - Guy Herbert, NO2ID - ComputerWeekly.com - "...there is no administrative u-turn. The fundamental objective - to underpin the "transformational government" data-sharing wheeze - is unchanged. The National Identity Register, hard-wired into the legislation, is unchanged. What has changed is the impression given in the implementation plan, which was always very hazy. From one mush to another does not count as a u-turn in my book: more like four-wheel drift. There never has been a technological specification, or any firm commitment on architecture, and Hall implies there still isn't - two years into the planning and with more than £60m spent on it."
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Security experts criticise government database plans - Tom Espiner - ZDNet UK - Security experts are hugely nervous about the government's latest database plans, and have pointed out numerous grave security concerns over two of its proposed schemes.
ID theft nets £85,000 a head: study - Lawyers a prime target - Out-Law.com - Identity fraud can net criminals £85,000 for each identity stolen, research has found. That is the average amount criminals can expect to gain from impersonating someone in the UK, according to anti-ID theft company Garlik.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
|
UK airport iris biometric system flunks its exams - Buried evaluation reveals awful truth |
UK airport iris biometric system flunks its exams - Buried evaluation reveals awful truth - John Lettice - The Register - An evaluation of the Home Office scheme to operate border controls via iris recognition "pretty much fails" Project Iris, according to Tory MP Ben Wallace. Wallace has been doggedly pursuing the results of the evaluation since autumn 2005, and these were quietly placed in the House of Commons library in late December. They reveal, according to Wallace, that Project Iris "failed half its assessments."
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Biometric ID cards an insecure menace, says EU ID outfit - Don't do it, and fix the passports ASAP, apparently... - John Lettice - The Register - The EU-funded FIDIS (Future of Identity in the Information Society) project has warned that implementation of the current generation of biometric travel ID will dramatically decrease security and privacy, and increase the risk of identity theft. In the Budapest Declaration, which derives from FIDIS' September meeting in Budapest, FIDIS calls for short-term damage control measures to be taken (because biometric ID is already being rolled out), and for "a new convincing and integrated security concept" to be developed within the next three years.
Passenger could face massive delays because of ID technology - The Daily Mail - Passengers face massive delays at airports because of problems with new iris-recognition equipment, a Tory MP claimed today. Ben Wallace said an official report on trials of the technology showed it had failed half of its assessments.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
|
Iris use dropped in ID card plans - Cost and technical uncertainties cited for decision |
Iris use dropped in ID card plans - Cost and technical uncertainties cited for decision - Sarah Arnott - VNUNET - Plans to use iris biometrics for the government's national identity card scheme have been shelved because of cost and technical uncertainties.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
How To Disable Your Passport's RFID Chip - Wired - All passports issued by the US State Department after January 1 will have always-on radio frequency identification chips, making it easy for officials - and hackers - to grab your personal stats. Getting paranoid about strangers slurping up your identity? Here's what you can do about it. But be careful - tampering with a passport is punishable by 25 years in prison. Not to mention the "special" customs search, with rubber gloves. Bon voyage!
|
|
15/05/2007 |
The ID that follows you beyond the grave - Olinka Koster - The Daily Mail - People who fail to update their national identity card will be fined a staggering £1,000, it has been revealed. And it will cost £30 to replace a lost or stolen card or buy a new one if a name needs to be changed, for example when a woman gets married. A "draconian" regime of fines, which will also include £1,000 for failing to return a dead relative's ID card, is revealed in the latest Government plans for the controversial scheme.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
A tax on the absent-minded - The Daily Telegraph - At long last, the Government has given us a clear and comprehensible justification for introducing identity cards: to levy more money from us. As we report today, ID cards will not be a one-off cost. We shall be expected to pay to update them whenever we change our address or circumstances. And should we neglect to do so, should we, for example, forget to hand in the card of a deceased relative, we shall be subject to gargantuan fines.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
House of ID Cards collapses - Chris Mellor - Techworld - The government has made a U-turn on controversal plans for a single ID Card database.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Millions may resist database, says poll - Philip Johnston - Daily Telegraph - The first signs of a significant popular revolt against the Government's identity card scheme have been uncovered by a YouGov poll for The Daily Telegraph. It suggests that hundreds of thousands of people, maybe even millions, would refuse to register on the proposed database that will underpin the scheme, even if this meant a fine or going to jail.
Study shows ID card dissent - Epolitix.com - Hundreds of thousands of people are likely to refuse to register on the database that will underpin the identity card scheme, according to a survey.
ID cards don't work - even Tony says so - Philip Johnston - Daily Telegraph - So what did he think of ID cards? The answer was on page 68: "Instead of wasting hundreds of millions of pounds on compulsory ID cards, let that money provide thousands more police officers on the beat in our local community." So much for Mr Blair's new contract.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
ID cards will help abusers, says Wales AM - ID cards will endanger domestic abuse victims, Mike German warns - News Wales - Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly leader Mike German has warned ID cards could threaten women vulnerable to domestic abuse.
He said today: "I have listened to the concerns of domestic abuse groups who are worried about the massive amount of information which will be accessible on anyone with an ID card. It will be far easier to track down those women who are in hiding because they have experienced abuse and feel threatened.
"Put bluntly, the government's plans will help abusers more than domestic abuse victims.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Government hints at ID card security - Tom Espiner - ZDNet UK - The chief executive of the Identity and Passport Service has revealed tantalising glimpses of how security will be maintained in the upcoming UK ID cards scheme.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Passport IT troubles bode ill for ID cards - Tony Collins - Computer Weekly - The Identity and Passport Service - the agency due to introduce national ID cards - has postponed indefinitely a much simpler IT project to allow people to apply and pay online for passports, despite making a "significant investment" in the system.Last week the prime minister Tony Blair renewed his support for ID cards and responded to those who question whether the IT will work by praising the technology that supports the issuing of passports. But Computer Weekly has learned that the Identity and Passport Service is running more than a year behind schedule on an online passport system that is far simpler than the ID cards scheme and costs less than one hundredth of its price.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
We need ID cards to secure our borders and ease modern life - Tony Blair - The Daily Telegraph - More hubris from the PM
Tony Blair to push forward with controversial ID cards plan - Ian Morgan - 24Dash.com
PM: ID cards will beat fraud and abuses - ePolitix
|
|
15/05/2007 |
They're watching our every move - Ian Bell - The Herald - ".... The old poll tax protests spring to mind. That was a rebellion, remember, against the notion that a human being should pay a fee just for existing. I never cared for the idea of a "loyalty" card.
I'll be damned - they may be counting on it - if I'll carry around an ID card and a snap of my bloodshot eyeballs."
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Beware of card tricks - Henry Porter - The Guardian - The government claims that national identity cards will help to counter terrorism, illegal immigration and ID fraud. That's rubbish, says Henry Porter, and in fact there is something much more sinister about them - they will fundamentally alter the relationship between citizen and state, and make slaves of us all
Chris Patten: Politicians have no grasp of technology - Tom Espiner - ZDNet UK - Former Tory politician Chris Patten has said that a fundamental lack of understanding in government is to blame for a rash of ill-thought-out technology projects and related legislation in recent years.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
ID cards plan remains "worryingly vague" - LSE academics criticise government's latest cost estimates... - Andy McCue - Silicon.com - The government's ID cards plan and cost estimates remain "worryingly vague", according to academics at the London School of Economics (LSE).
Government admits ID card project won't be fully tested - David Meyer
ZDNet UK - 'Not realistic to rigorously test everything before the scheme goes live', says the government, as it backs off-the-shelf technology and then immediately contradicts itself
LSE researchers respond to the government's first costed report about the UK Identity Cards scheme - eGov Monitor - Researchers from LSE have today (Friday 20 October) released their analysis of the government's first Section 37 report on the likely costs of the UK Identity Cards Scheme.
Consultants paid £159 an hour to advise the Home Office on ID cards - James Kirkup - The Scotsman - Management consultants hired by the government to work on the controversial national identity card project are being paid an average of £159 an hour.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Treasury refuses to release ID card analysis - ePolitix.com - The Treasury is still resisting demands to publish an independent analysis of the cost of introducing identity cards, it has emerged. The move comes despite a ruling from the information commissioner Richard Thomas that the so-called 'gateway review' into the £5.4bn scheme should be released.
Fight Over ID Card Report - Sky News - The Treasury is to fight a watchdog's demand for it to publish a secret progress report on the controversial ID card scheme.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
ID card chief tainted by IT fiasco at NHS - Ben Leapman - The Daily Telegraph - The official appointed to oversee the Government's controversial identity card scheme has already played a central role in a public-sector computer disaster. James Hall, who began work last week as chief executive of the Identity and Passport Service (IPS), was previously a partner at the consultancy firm Accenture. His last job was running a £2 billion contract under which Accenture was to build a database of medical records for the NHS. But the project has fallen three years behind schedule. Accenture pulled out last month, blaming "significant delays" and writing off £260 million.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Combating illegal immigration at centre of ID card plans - Home Office
U.K. Plans to Introduce ID Cards for Foreign Residents by 2008 - Reed V. Landberg - Bloomberg - Foreign citizens living in Britain will have to hold an identification card by 2008 under a 5.4 billion pound program to roll out ID cards to everyone in the country.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
|
ID cards are key to catching illegal immigrants, ministers will insist |
ID cards are key to catching illegal immigrants, ministers will insist - Patrick Hennessy - The Daily Telegraph - Identity cards are to be presented as a crucial weapon in the fight against illegal immigrants in a significant change of tack by ministers. Until now, senior figures led by Tony Blair have insisted that the main reason for pressing ahead with the controversial programme is that ID cards will help win the war on terrorism.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
|
Tories pledge to abolish ID cards - "ID cards are wrong, they're a waste of money," says Cameron... |
Tories pledge to abolish ID cards - "ID cards are wrong, they're a waste of money," says Cameron... - Andy McCue - Silicon.com - Conservative Party leader David Cameron has pledged to scrap the government's ID cards scheme and undertake a full-scale review of the £12.4bn NHS IT project if the Tories win the next General Election.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
|
People prefer iPods to biometric passports - Anyone for an iDcard? |
People prefer iPods to biometric passports - Anyone for an iDcard? - Mark Ballard - The Home Office has tried to frighten people into taking its identity plans seriously by publishing a marketing survey it said proved their passports were easy targets for ruthless criminals.
Mythbusters - Beat Finger Print Security System - YouTube
|
|
15/05/2007 |
|
ID card scheme changes tack - Whitehall shifts from original concept of a single massive project |
ID card scheme changes tack - Whitehall shifts from original concept of a single massive project - Sarah Arnott - Computing - The government is taking the first steps to creating the national identity card project from existing systems, confirming a shift away from earlier plans to build the scheme from scratch.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Baroness criticises ID card proposals - Phil Miller - The Herald - Baroness Helena Kennedy, QC, one of Britain's leading defenders of human rights law, yesterday lambasted the proposed introduction of ID cards.
ID card fears as staff hack into Home Office database - Jason Lewis - The Daily Mail - Office staff are hacking into the department's computers, putting at risk the privacy of 40million people in Britain. The revelation undermines Government claims that sensitive information being collected for its controversial ID Cards scheme could not fall into criminal hands.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
OGC must reveal findings - Paul Snell - SupplyManagement.com - The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) has been ordered to reveal the outcome of its reviews of the ID card scheme.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
|
50M spent on ID Card Scheme.. and it still may be axed MP'S 'Waste' fury |
50M spent on ID Card Scheme.. and it still may be axed MP'S 'Waste' fury - Rosa Prince - The Daily Mirror - The controversial ID card scheme has already cost taxpayers nearly £50million.
ID cards costs reach almost £50m - And the project hasn't even started yet... - Andy McCue - Silicon.com - The government has revealed it has spent almost £50m on the controversial ID cards scheme before the project has even got off the ground.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Government loses 24,000 ID passes - James Kirkup - The Scotsman - More than 24,500 government security passes giving access to military sites and sensitive Whitehall offices have gone missing in the past three years, fuelling fears about the British state's vulnerability to terrorism.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Planning of the proposals is patchy and projected costs are potentially unreliable, says the Science and Technology Select Committee.
Bigger, dafter, creepier - Gordon Brown's ID scheme rescue plan
Get the shops to pay for it, and catch villains for us... - John Lettice - The Register - 'Sources' close to Chancellor Gordon Brown are floating plans to finish off ID cards entirely in the UK - although that isn't quite how they're putting it. Instead, the advance men for the Prime Minister in waiting are offering a nightmare pitch that harnesses the private sector to implement a total surveillance system while raking in revenue for the Government.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
|
Time to get a grip on costs and avert a potential identity crisis |
The procurement process for the technology services components of the scheme was expected to start later this year, but the government has struggled to get the necessary political approval, and recent statements from the ruling Labour party have failed to set out a clear timeline.
Time to get a grip on costs and avert a potential identity crisis
Public Servant Daily - Richard Faris - Taking a leaf out of the private sector's book and introducing rigorous project management will be vital to the success of the government's controversial ID card scheme.
The history of government-funded IT projects is notoriously bleak and, despite increased efforts, the government has been unable to improve the record in recent years. The latest scheme to hit the headlines amid much controversy concerns the government's proposed introduction of ID cards.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
|
EU: "biometric passports" - We will not just have to be finger-printed once but over and over again |
Leading IT suppliers have told the government they may not bid for the national ID cards contracts because they fear being associated with the hugely unpopular scheme, according to a leaked report.
EU: "biometric passports" - We will not just have to be finger-printed once but over and over again - Statewatch - On 29 June the European Commission announced the "second part" of the introduction of biometric passports under Council Regulation 2252/2004. In the jargon "Basic Access Control" means the storage of a person's "facial image" on a RFID "contactless chip" activated by reading the data in the "machine readable zone" (two lines of data already on all EU passports). The "second part" comprises sorting out the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) which will give "Extended Access Control" (jargon for encrypted access) to the data on the two fingerprints of all passport-holders to be embedded in the RFID chip. The Commissioner, Mr Frattini, is "particularly proud" of this development which means: "the EU will be among the first worldwide to implement this system" (Press statement).
Leak reveals ID card 'risks' - David Leppard - The Sunday Times - Fresh evidence that Tony Blair's flagship identity cards scheme is in crisis is disclosed in a confidential Home Office report which has been leaked to The Sunday Times.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
CIO wanted - must be good at fixing broken ID card schemes - John Lettice - The Register - The ID scheme is the most obvious of the Home Office's IT headaches, but it's by no means the only one. The Immigration and Nationality Directorate's recent discovery of up to 450,000 records associated with asylum seekers speaks volumes about the state (or indeed the very existence) of the asylum and immigration database, while serial failures in passing simple pieces of data between departments and agencies indicates systemic IT failure. Even if you conceded the ID scheme was dead now, you would not be able to fix the Home Office without fixing all the rest of the IT.
|
|
15/05/2007 |
Britons face 11 ID checks a year - BBC - UK adults are asked to prove their identity (ID) 11 times on average each year, research from Manchester Business School has found Not delayed, not sleeping, dead - UK ID card scheme goes under - Damned with indeterminate schedules... - John Lettice - The Register - Although the fat lady (or possibly more appropriately, the portly former Home Secretary) has yet to sing on the subject, yesterday's statements from the Home Office make it a racing certainty that ID cards are dead in this parliamentary administration. The portly former Home Secretary meanwhile has been busy singing denunciations of John Reid's misdeeds in other areas, but will no doubt warble on the sad end of ID cards just as soon as he gets a minute in his busy schedule. Thanks, Mr Blair, for bringing a Third World flavour to our politics - Matthew Parris - The Times - To measure the seriousness of a government's grip, ask not how loud the bang when a new policy is announced, but how noiseless the tinkle when it is dropped. As each trumpeted initiative is quietly shelved, the shrugged shoulders speak volumes. Only when we notice ho |