Thought on the UK national ID card.

[ffutures]

Assuming they ever get the scheme off the ground there will be lots of information on that card, and it can be accessed by all sorts of organization - but not the person carrying it if he's a private citizen. And when someone shows the man in the street his card and says "Trust me, I'm xxxxx...." how the hell are we supposed to know if it's real or not?

The whole point of introducing this card is allegedly that it's too easy to forge other forms of ID. But shorn of the electronic side of things this is just another piece of plastic. I will have no way of verifying if someone showing me his card is showing me the real thing or a fake. More important, I will have no way of verifying that the person asking me to produce my card for scanning is real or fake.

I suspect that the government answer to all this is that police etc. will wear uniforms - easily faked - or carry warrant cards and other forms of ID - but by the terms which they are using to justify this scheme, they are potentially false documents. Only the one true UK identity card is unforgeable. Yeah, right...

Anyway, this thing is going to cost about 60-90 quid per person - I think that for that money it should come with a card reader that as a minimum displays the name and picture displayed on the card, and that citizens should have the right to see the cards of all visiting officials, anyone stopping them in the street, etc.

Anyone wants to run with this as an article, petition, etc. please feel free!

Comments

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

Well yes. These sorts of things are never discussed by the pro-id card lobby. they never think about how it would be used.

I would still be happier with an improved diving license or an improved passport than a brand new id card.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I think the pro-id card are lobby are only thinking about the masses of cash they will be able to make for their chums who are going to win the contracts to introduce these totally useless pieces of plastic.

Either that or they are deliberately wanting to introduce something that will, in my opinion, make identity fraud easier. Because who is going to argue with an ID card? They can't be faked! You must be who you say you are!

Bah.

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

And how do you check an ID Card over the phone? and how is it checked over the internet - that *must* be easy, right?

And how do you check an ID Card by post?

[thorkell.livejournal.com]

How do you know pre ID card that the person you're talking to is the person he claims to be?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I don't - but up to now that has worked both ways. Assuming the new cards work as claimed it will all be one way - officialdom will be able to read them, but we won't have anything like the same certainty about officials.

[tessarin.livejournal.com]

And it will be just as easy to fake as the existing forms. Couple this with the DNA database, road pricing, oyster card etc and it becomes very big brother. Plus lose them or have a criminal steal your identity proving your innocence with the move to continental style justice becomes much harder.

There is already a campaign against it.

http://www.no2id.net/mailman/listinfo/no2id-supporters

At least both the other major parties are now against it so hopefully it will be binned. This used to be one of the defining differences between us and less free nations.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Already subscribe - but I noticed that they've never made this point.

[johnreiher.livejournal.com]

Yup, like the USA and it's Real ID, which has all the same problems as this hairbrained scheme has.

[parakkum.livejournal.com]

What's the current state of ID law in the UK? That is, if you're strolling down the street, is a police officer legally allowed to stop you and request (or order) that you produce identification even without some form of probable cause?

I just missed ending up with one of the new U.S. passports with RFID tag inside, having renewed earlier this year right before the switchover (and right before the massive, massive slowdown in issuing passports that followed on the switchover).

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Not yet - but we appear to be headed that way.

[ci5rod.livejournal.com]

What's the current state of ID law in the UK? That is, if you're strolling down the street, is a police officer legally allowed to stop you and request (or order) that you produce identification even without some form of probable cause?

No. But if said police officer can manage to make out that you're a terrorist suspect (by, say, failing to obey the orders of a police officer) then it's a whole different ball game.

It's also interesting to note that if the national ID database gets your information wrong, it is your duty to correct it. At your cost.

Should it ever become an issue for me, I have plans for dealing with an RFID-enabled passport. They involve being very careless when visiting a friend who runs a hospital MRI scanner :-)