[Archived] Id Cards

[Jimbo]

The home office have come up with the cost of ID cards here BBC Link - Yours for a mere 5.4 Billion - slightly different from the 20 billion that independent experts have quoted. - Let it go ahead say I & any over runs in costs have to be borne by the people that vote it in and the companies that quote for it - I wonder how many will be up for it then ?

[Billy Castell]

The ability for the state to abuse it's power will grow alarmingly if the ID cards were as high tech and intrusive as the Labour Party wish. Personal details from the Census are already being sold to the highest bidder,what do you think will happen to the extra info?

It is a slippery slope is this, and the next step in 10 or 15 years time will be the ability for the police to arrest those without a card, or actual DNA sequences recorded on a database. Maybe I have been reading too much George Orwell, but the proposed ID cards in the hands of the current government make me insecure and slightly paranoid.

Still, if its all to be computerised, it'll no doubt go absolutely tits up soon enough.

[Biddy]

the proposed ID cards in the hands of the current government make me insecure and slightly paranoid.

Current government? I'll be very worried if ANY government get all this information together.

[Gareth]

The home office have come up with the cost of ID cards here BBC Link - Yours for a mere 5.4 Billion - slightly different from the 20 billion that independent experts have quoted. - Let it go ahead say I & any over runs in costs have to be borne by the people that vote it in and the companies that quote for it - I wonder how many will be up for it then ?

Thing is, the government have never published a study to prove their claims about how much it'll cost...

Edited October 9, 2006 by Gareth

[philipl]

Just for a giggle yesterday, I asked one of my junior staff to see if he could download our customer data with credit card details onto a CD-Rom to send to our other office by post (he was to bring the CD-rom to me if he actually got the copy).

Thankfully the procedures stopped him.

I am still left speechless that the procedures at HMRC were so weak.

This surely is the time to go in for the kill on ID cards.

We mightas well post all our personal details on an open blog on the web as give them to the Government.

[broadsword]

The procedures are there, but were disregarded by a junior member of staff who was probably over-worked, underpaid, and couldn't give a to55.

Perhaps something to do with out-sourcing and getting best value for the tax payer, leaving those left behind totally apathetic?

Or perhaps they're just fricking useless.

In any case, ID cards are surely dead in the water now. If they did come in, I'd suspect there'd be significant amounts of civil disobedience.

[Flopsy]

whats really worrying is that a single slip during data entry, means that all your details might be wrong.

And the person doing the data entry will be some poor minimum wage gap year student

[Jimbo]

whats really worrying is that a single slip during data entry, means that all your details might be wrong.

And the person doing the data entry will be some poor minimum wage gap year student

I take it you mean an outsourced company in the far east or eastern europe, outside of the current and any proposed data protection laws where the employees have a nice little sideline in selling on your details to whoever wants them.

[Flopsy]

probably

[philipl]

The market for your bank account details

I think teaching statistical techniques should be made compulsory. The whole war on terrorism thing is a massive con based on convincing the populous that something such as death by terrorist which has the same likelihood as death by lightening or rattlesnake is worth compensating for by the certainty of a trillion dollar rip-off by the military industrial state (Iraq War and yes I fell for that one too) building something that doesn't actually do the job or a ten billion pounds rip-off by the IT/consultancy (ID cards) building something else that doesn't actually do the job.

In fact both rip-offs have and will significantly increase the lack of personal security and risk s to the individual citizen.

[Gareth]

An opinion poll in the Telegraph says that more people now oppose ID cards than support them (48% against, 43% support).

The drop in support is due to the recent revelations over the child benefit database... At least some good has come out of it then.

[blue phil]

I'm amazed that as many as 43% still support ID cards . I don't know anyone who does .....

[broadsword]

Opinion polls aren't perfect.

I've always, always been against them (ID cards). The thought that they may be brought iun by an over-bearing, money-grabbing, wasteful and incompetent government, and implemented by 100 chimps with a 100 typewriters, oh I do beg your pardon, I mean civil service, is scary.

Totally agree with philipl's last post.

Edited December 4, 2007 by Bryan

[Flopsy]

I'm amazed that as many as 43% still support ID cards . I don't know anyone who does .....

Depends who they asked I suppose - maybe it was Government officials.

I'm never quite sure with these Polls whether people say, "actually I dont mind an ID Card scheme per se - say like a drivers license/ NI Card / Passport but I object to the Government having all my biological data as they are a bunch of incompetant arses."

Although I'm still waiting how ID cards will prevent terrorism, maybe they're bomb proof

[Guest Dik Bleek]

In Europe we need proof of identity either in the form of a ID card or a passport, when you stay in a hotel or business transaction etc it's just common sense.

[colin]

and implemented by 100 chimps with a 100 typewriters, oh I do beg your pardon, I mean civil service.

Tread carefully. I think I remember your surname from posts long gone. You will be strapped into a cage full of rats and made to confess that you love Big Brother.

(That's a George Orwell reference BTW, bugger all to do with telly)

[broadsword]

[Gareth]

NO2ID have found a document (pdf) over how ID cards will be sued and forced pn the public, which they've annotated.

The Register has a good guide to it.

[philipl]

An LSE professor explains the dangers of the ID card system.

I will repeat, I feel far more threatened by this legislation than I do by Al Quaida or the IRA before them.

[RibbleValleyRover]

I'm one of those that is totally opposed to ID cards, they don't help with crime, security or immigration like Labour keep bleating on about. Then there is the issue that you will have to pay a princely sum to get one, another tax in other words.

With all the well publicised incidents of 'data' going missing, I can't see how this scheme can go ahead. Labour has proven they are truly incompetent in terms of data processing and storage.

I just cannot fathom why anyone will be in favour of an ID card scheme.

[BuckyRover]

Because, quite simply, people are idiots. They trust the government with everything.

I work in IT. I know this cannot possibly work. It’s so big it’s unmanageable.

Even if very small, the error rate will cause (huge?) problems for thousands of people.

Remember though "If you have nothing to hide....."

[RibbleValleyRover]

Remember though "If you have nothing to hide....."

If the government uses that as a slogan to try and justify the use of ID cards then i can see why some people might fall for it. But i would argue why should we be pressured into something for fear of suspicion.

[American]

Because, quite simply, people are idiots. They trust the government with everything.

I work in IT. I know this cannot possibly work. It’s so big it’s unmanageable.

Even if very small, the error rate will cause (huge?) problems for thousands of people.

Remember though "If you have nothing to hide....."

Where is the Bucky that used to post on this board? He's been taken over by someone more reasoned. Guess that happens when you stop going to school and start working....

[philipl]

Daily Telegraph mocks ID cards

[philipl]

Applied for a new passport and it took 4 goes to submit an acceptable passport photo.

The frowning short hair cut picture looks nothing like I normally do but it will biometrically scan whereas my usual curly hair will not.