UK ID Card Bill

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Brian Randell <Brian.Randell () newcastle ac uk>
Date: June 28, 2005 7:02:45 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: UK ID Card Bill


Dave:

The UK Parliament is today debating the Government's bill to  
introduce a national ID Card System. There is growing opposition to  
this, but it is predicted that their Bill will bet through this first  
hurdle. One of the most surprising sources of public opposition is  
the Information Commissioner - see attached story from today's  
Guardian newspaper. (The Information Commissioner's Office is a UK  
independent supervisory authority reporting directly to the UK  
Parliament, which oversees and enforces compliance with both the Data  
Protection Act 1998 and Freedom Of Information Act 2000.)



> ID cards 'will reveal details of daily life'
>
> Information commissioner warns of surveillance society
>
> Patrick Wintour, chief political correspondent
> Tuesday June 28, 2005
> The Guardian
>
> The information commissioner, Richard Thomas, yesterday issued his  
> most detailed and hard-hitting attack so far on the government's  
> plans for identity cards.
>
> Mr Thomas, appointed by the government to report to parliament on  
> privacy issues, described the scheme as part of Britain's growing  
> "surveillance society".
>
> He focused on the unprecedented recording of information about  
> individuals on an unnecessarily intrusive government-controlled  
> central register. He accused the government of planning to retain  
> information on the register that went beyond the needs set out in  
> the ID card legislation itself.
>
> Article continues
> Although Mr Thomas has voiced concerns over the privacy issues  
> raised by ID cards before, his latest critique came just a day  
> before MPs vote on the second reading of the government's bill.
>
> It also follows the publication of a report from the London School  
> of Economics yesterday which suggested that the cost of a card  
> could pass £170 - well beyond government estimates.
>
> Mr Thomas argued that the measures in the bill go well beyond  
> establishing a secure, reliable and trustworthy ID card, risking an  
> unnecessary and disproportionate intrusion into individuals' privacy.
>
> "There can be little justification for retention of all such  
> details in a central national identity register," he said.
>
> "The extensive personal information retained on the proposed  
> national identity register and the requirement on individuals to  
> keep notifying changes is excessive and disproportionate."
>
> He cited the fact that the government's plans require individuals  
> to list all their addresses and not just their main residence.
>
> "If a person issued with a card buys a second home this cannot  
> affect their identity, which would already have been verified and  
> tied to them by a unique biometric," he said. "The requirement to  
> register another address is excessive and irrelevant to  
> establishing that person's identity."
>
> He claimed the government was planning to create an unnecessary  
> data trail of when a card is checked against the national identity  
> register. "This will show who checked it and when ... thus building  
> up a picture of an individual's card use and a detailed picture  
> from this of how they live their lives.
>
> "The creation of this detailed data trail of individuals'  
> activities is particularly worrying and cannot be viewed in  
> isolation of other initiatives which serve to build a detailed  
> picture of people's lives, such as CCTV surveillance (with  
> automatic facial recognition), use of automatic number plate  
> recognition recording vehicle movements for law enforcement and  
> congestion charging, and the proposals to introduce satellite  
> tracking of vehicles for road use charging."
>
> He said retention of such information went beyond the five stated  
> purposes of the bill - "national security, prevention and detection  
> of crime, enforcement of immigration controls, enforcement of  
> prohibitions on illegal working, efficient and effective delivery  
> of public services".
>
> "If we are to have an identity card, the information commissioner  
> would like it to be a tool to assist individuals to demonstrate  
> their identity when they find it useful," he said. "It should be a  
> tool within the individual's control.
>
> "The information commissioner is concerned about the way in which  
> demands will grow for individuals to prove their identity. The  
> broad purposes permit function creep into unforeseen and perhaps  
> unacceptable areas of private life". But he did not give any  
> examples of how this might occur.
>
> Other systems of checks are perfectly feasible, such as a local  
> card reader and biometric reader verifying identity, removing the  
> need for central records to be kept.
>
> He also complained about the breadth of organisations with access  
> to the register and gaps in the oversight arrangements, including  
> lack of comprehensive powers for the commissioner to check on data  
> protection compliance.
>
> The aim should be for people "to reliably identify themselves  
> rather than one which enhances its ability to identify and record  
> what its citizens do in their lives".

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,11026,1516116,00.html

cheers

Brian

--
School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon  
Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
EMAIL = Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk   PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
FAX = +44 191 222 8232  URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/


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