Register – ID cards technology is ready, says UK minister
Silicon.com – ID cards: Biometrics work… sort of
Now here’s the really good news…
Independent – US wants to be able to access Britons’ ID cards: The United States wants Britain’s proposed identity cards to have the same microchip and technology as the ones used on American documents. The aim of getting the same microchip is to ensure compatibility in screening terrorist suspects. But it will also mean that information contained in the British cards can be accessed across the Atlantic.
FFS, even if you disregard the privacy and liberty issues here, you have to acknowledge that this government has produced an impressive series of IT disasters. I am *not* going to trust them with my data.
No2ID: The Bill is the same insidious legislation as the last – even the Constitutional Committee’s recommendation to change its name to something more accurate has been ignored. Their Lordships thought it unusual that the two main parts of the project, the national identity database containing biometrics and personal data, and the trackable audit trail of every occasion where the details are checked, didn’t receive a more obvious advert. Perhaps the Home Office thought that the ID Card, Byzantine and Broken Identity Register and Orwellian Audit Trail Bill doesn’t have the same ring to it.
PS – I love this new justification riding on the back of a popular and effective commercial advertising campaign; ID Cards: your solution to identity theft!
UPDATE – Chicken Yoghurt – The vultures are circling: There aren’t any contracts in place yet, the Home Office said so. So riddle me this: how can anything be commercially confidential at this stage? The fix, it would seem, is in. There’s your culture of respect right there.
