ID? Here's My Card

We're told that ID Cards are essential. Blair says we need them to track terrorists (but he doesn't understand the technology, and why it won't track terrorists). The Home Office says we need them to prevent identity theft (but they're not listening to industry experts who say that they won't). The DWP says we need them to eliminate Benefit fraud (but they'll just make life more complicated for people who really don't need any more complication in their lives).

These things are going to cost a lot of money. Not just what the Government spends to make the cards and set up its vast, unwieldy and potentially unreliable database and communications network, but also the cost of equipping the world and his wife with fingerprint and iris scanners, which Hard Working Families will pay for through their bank charges, less interest from their building society accounts and higher prices in the shops.

Yet the ID enthusiasts are making little effort to tell us how cards will affect our everyday lives. The Identity and Passport Service has just three simplified examples on its website: Proving your Age, Collecting a Parcel, and Transferring Money. Big deal. And the most complex of these raises more questions than it answers [I'll blog about those issues later].

What we need – if this scheme goes ahead – is legislation that will compel service providers to accept the card as the only necessary proof of ID. Otherwise we are going to remain in the current absurd situation in which even hiring a white van requires a passport, driving licence and a few utility bills (plus a photo of me on the hire company's webcam, last time I hired one). If the card is as good as they say it will be, it must be accepted everywhere as full and final proof of identity. Would they dare?

Comments

[Nigel Sedgwick]

You wrote: "If the card is as good as they say it will be, it must be accepted everywhere as full and final proof of identity."

If and when the scheme comes in, I do hope that the way it is used is proportionate, in each case, to the value of the "secured assets" to be protected by confirmation of identity. Also that the equipment procured to be available at the various Points of Use (PoUs) is proportionate to the additional protection offered.

For more information, please take a look at a presentation entitled Technical Aspects of the National Identity Card (available at http://www.camalg.co.uk/tk051116a/TK051116A_bcs_02.pdf ).

For non-technical people, there are bits of this presentation at both the beginning and end that might still be of interest.

Best regards