Dave Plowman (News) wrote:


I *really* don't see the problem. We already have to carry works ID cards,
etc, so one other shouldn't be a problem. For honest folk at least.

Well, let's see:
- you choose where to work, you don't have anything like the same
choice about being a citizen/resident of the UK.

- your workID card typically doesn't carry a log of everywhere it's
been used; even if it does, that log's only about when you've carded in
and out of work (modulo tailgating ;-) and isn't on a country-wide database.

- the 'works ID' registration process is in the context of (typically)
one establishment - a few thousand people tops; and gives authorisation
to enter one premissseses with lower likelihood of challenge than
without. The 'national identity register' enrollment is s'posed to cover
the 40 million over-16s of the country, to *flawlessly* link enrolments
to authentic 'foundation documents' (replacement birth certs cost
between 7 and 12 quid, delivered to any address you care to ask for).
The huge range of uses which the National Register's meant to cover
makes the motivation for criminal abuse huge - both of the registration
process, and of suborning the ****ed-off, privatised, temporary-contract
staff who end up with access priviliges. Current costs for getting DVLC
information are about 50 notes, AIUI.
That's without considering more serious, targetted attacks, to delete,
change, or simply louse up entries in the National Identity Register,
and the multitude of other flawlessly-implemented,
flawlessly-administered, flawlessly-designed (don Kevlar anti-trotter
helmets at this point) Government IT systems connected to it.

- your works-ID card isn't tied to a national database which makes the
card irrelevant: at least for iris scans, the efficiency of recognition
means it's pretty reliable (prob-of-misidentifying down in the
one-in-a-million-million range) to go straight from 'look into this
tube, please, Sir' to 'ah, Mr D Blunkett, Upper Floor Sh*gpad, Admiralty
House' - whether or not the geezer asking for your biometrix is acting
lawfully or otherwise.

Maybe we'll see an honest, well-informed debate, seriously examining the
risks and benefits on all sides. Me, I'd keep those anti-trotter helmets
firmly on the bonce...

Stefek