On Sat, 22 May 2021 22:51:34 +0100, Steve Walker
wrote:

On 22/05/2021 22:02, Max Demian wrote:
On 22/05/2021 11:16, Nick Odell wrote:

As Spike has already said, I'd recommend that you read the article in
El Reg and the thread in ULM and then make up your mind. If you are
still cool with the data-grab then that's -erme- cool.

The annoying thing is that it would have been perfectly possible to
provide data for medical research without compromising patient
confidentiality but in order to make it commercially attractive they
want to give away a whole lot more.

The care.data debacle took place under the Con/Lib-Dem coalition
government but it shouldn't be forgotten that the ID card fiasco
belonged to Labour.

Personally, I have no objection to carrying an ID card per se

Why? Where would you carry it if you were wearing swimming trunks? What
if you forgot? What value other than allowing officials to ask for your
"Papiere, bitte"?

I am happy for my details (as in passport/driving licence) to be on
record and to be available to the police to confirm my identity if I am
stopped for any reason, but do not want to have an ID card that I have
to carry. It is quite common for me to be doing some DIY then rush out
to my parents to borrow something or to the shops to pick up a click and
collect item, without changing my clothes or picking up cards and things
that I would rather not have in my pocket when crawling under the car or
similar.

@Max @Steve I'm sure I'm not the only person here who's lived in a
place where ID cards are the norm and you don't debate whther or not
to take the card with you when you leave the house any more than you
think about house keys*/car keys*/money*/phone* (*add to or delete as
appropriate). You just do it. The only difference that I can see is
that in those countries keeping tabs on the population is overt: we've
been doing it in increasingly covert ways for years. Again, my real
objection would be to an ID card that unlocks the repository of
everything known about you (the abandoned Labour plan) rather than a
form of identification that is valid in all the different places you
make transactions. IE a government portal you have to pass through to
get to your bank vs. a number that the bank will recognise when you go
to them directly.

As for medical records, as long as they cannot identify me, I am happy
to contribute my records to further research.

Well, this is where we came in, isn't it?

Nick