Sunday 25 November 2007

ID Cards -A good Thing?

Not from where I am sitting, despite the government claims on how they will prevent identity theft and help to catch terrorists I remain unconvinced.

First up is the cost, £5.31 billion - latest estimate from May 2007. Like it is going to come in on time and to budget, for a short list of fecked up government IT projects read this.

Next up is that hoary old chestnut of biometrics making them “very secure”. Taking fingerprints as a start point I had no idea how easy they were to replicate until I read this yesterday from the always informative and entertaining Dr Ben Goldacre.

The data that they plan to store on the cards would be very valuable to those in the criminal fraternity who could use it to perform identity theft on scales not previously seen. Cloning fake ID cards will prove to be a very lucrative business to them as well.

Look at how little effort it took to “crack” the new UK biometric passports and regardless of what the government tell us I feel sure that the same will apply to ID cards.

I just do not trust government to keep our data safe and have great trouble swallowing their claims for the “benefits” of having ID cards, it is just another attempt to control us.

Read what they are doing right now in the US with mobile phones which have GPS chips - call me paranoid but it will start happening here soon - may even have started already.

10 comments:

Sezme said...

The world has gone crazy and shows no signs of gaining any sanity any time soon.

Lin said...

Secure data and government efficiency are two things I do not believe in as much as Santa Claus. Combing the two gives me the utter willies.

Lin said...

Sigh ... that should read as "combining the two ..."

DBA Dude said...

rt, probably not in my lifetime.

Lin, rather liked the imagery of "combing" them :)

Whichendbites said...

ID cards...........

Secure data...........

Government promises & assurances

I think not somehow.............

There could be a useful combination of personal information,driving licence details, important medical information in case of accident, especially useful for diabetics, epileptics to name a few.

The BIG problem will be, like everything the government try to to, is that a good idea will not have the time and resources invested to make it work and to protect the information of the individual. There will be an overspend on promoting but an underspend on the mechanics of the idea itself. They will try to promote the brand but fail to see that the brand has a flaw.

DBA Dude said...

Well said web, the only thing that we can rely on the government doing well (apart from spending loads on consultants to advise them) is to screw up any IT project they attempt to deploy.

Lin said...

Okay for you, dba, there comes a powerful Karmic debt and poetic justice with teezin' a geez. Just AMHIK. grin

phlegmfatale said...

I quite agree- the whole ID card thing is creepy and will only oppress the people who try to obey the law anyway. It's a waste of energy and money

Catmoves said...

Santa Claus and government. Two items that are neither real nor give hook free gifts.
ID cards, friends, are going to be the basis of our 1984. Fight them with all your might.
I know that I will not sign up for one. I may be forced into it with my next driver's licence, but it will be with a lot of kicking and screaming.

DBA Dude said...

catmoves, Our one big hope over here is that the fiasco of the Revenue losing 25 million peoples personal data on 2 cds might put an end to it.

Pretty slim hope but who knows.