Recent posts in my ID cards Category
December 29, 2007
Doctor Who against ID cards?
Thanks to the successfully revived show I'm very easy to buy for at Christmas these days - and a good proportion of my presents came branded with the Doctor Who logo in several variations. I also got this card from Paperlink, drawn by Steve Best. At first glance it is just a joke about relative dimensional properties of the TARDIS. A closer inspection, however, seems to reveal a subliminal message from the Doctor about Britain's plans for an ID card...
November 28, 2007
Putting my money where my mouth used to be over ID cards
I don't know whether it will turn out to be one of the furthest-flung contributions, but a PledgeBank pledge I made a couple of years ago about ID cards has been called in. 'Hello, you have received this message because you signed my pledge, "I will refuse to register for an ID card and will donate £10 to a legal defence fund but only if 10,000 other people will also make this same pledge" back in 2005. In fact 11360...
August 4, 2006
ID Cards making the net a more dangerous place for kids
Easy to forge, lures child (and parents) into false sense of security. Stupid rip-off. Crystaltips sums it up pretty well on her del.icio.us link to a story from BBC News yesterday about a new online safety ID card being promoted for children. The ID scheme was set up by UK businessman Alex Hewitt after he discovered that his daughter could only verify the age and identity of a third of her 150 online friends. He said: "People want to feel...
November 23, 2004
The Queen's Speech announces the introduction of ID Cards from 2008
It is a rare day that finds me agreeing with not only the main opinion feature in the Evening Standard, but the editorial itself - as well as agreeing with a spokesman from the Shadow Cabinet during a two-way on Radio Five Live this evening. However, the announcement today that the government intend to push through legislation to allow for biometric ID cards in the UK before the next election makes it such a day. As the Evening Standard editorial...
September 28, 2004
Technology in Tony Blair's Party Conference speech
Tomorrow's newspaper headlines will be full of protest, Iraq, and hunting when they discuss Tony Blair's keynote speech to the 2004 Labour Party Conference. Naturally it was the references to technology that pricked up my ears - and there were two in his section on "ten things a future Labour third term can do for Britain's hard-working families". At number seven: "ending the digital divide by bringing broadband technology to every home in Britain that wants it by 2008" That...
August 30, 2004
Operation Londinium at Stratford
One of the highlights of my day out to see the National Maritime Museum's The Adventures of Tintin at Sea exhibition, was a rare chance to travel on the futuristic Docklands Light Railway. It caused one of my friends to remark "This is how the future was sold to me as a kid - travelling through tunnels in a robot-driven train.". On the way home we got caught up in another vision of the future, although this time it was...
July 30, 2004
House of Commons Home Affairs Committee on UK ID Cards
So the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee has been having a look at David Blunkett's plans to make us all own biometric data enabled ID cards. It doesn't make good reading, despite some of the headlines being that it is critical of the Government's plans. In fact on the whole it approves of them - the opening paragraph of the report's conclusion states that: "We believe that an identity card scheme could make a significant contribution to achieving the...
July 29, 2004
Privacy Awards and ID Cards
Oh the irony (or should that always now be d'oh the humanity?) of these two stories being published within an hour of each other - Privacy foes named and shamed and UK 'not ready' for ID card scheme One, a quick round-up of the UK Big Brother* awards from Privacy International, announced that Margaret Hodge had been named and shamed as our worst public servant, and was only able to honour the efforts of David Blunkett by renaming the Lifetime...
February 14, 2004
Spain to introduce pioneering electronic ID cards
This could be massive, Spain is thinking about putting out digital ID cards. "Spain will introduce pioneering electronic identity cards to help boost internet security by giving people unique digital signatures, Interior Minister Angel Acebes said on Friday. The 150 million euro ($192 million) scheme, due to be rolled out from 2005 after a pilot version at the end of this year, will replace current identity cards with a version that looks similar but carries a small chip packed...
February 9, 2004
Blunkett claims ID cards could have prevented cockle picker deaths
Never let it be said Home Secretary David Blunkett is one to pass up an opportunity to champion his schemes in the public domain. Today, in the wake of the deaths of cockle pickers in Morecambe Bay, he claimed ID cards could have prevented the deaths, and would: "ensure that anyone who was here couldn't actually present themselves for any other service or for work without identifying themselves properly" Yes, that's right. The man in charge of law and...
November 11, 2003
Identity Card statement to the House of Parliament by David Blunkett
So David Blunkett has announced in parliament today that at a cost of £3 billion we are on a ten year road to a compulsory biometric identity card in Britain. He sold it on the grounds of increasing security, cutting down on fraud, and basically that the technology is there, the American's are doing it, so we had better as well. The cards will come in by stealth as biometrics are gradually added to renewed passports and driving licences....
August 14, 2003
Smartcards, standards, e-Government vs e-anything that doesn't work
Today The Guardian reported that the Government's e-Envoy office has been looking into the issue's surrounding the provision of 'smart cards' to deliver government services, and has found four obstacles to their widespread adoption. Of which two were the lack of open standards and data protection. The solution is to "standardise technology" by getting cards to adhere to an e-Gif standard [e-Governemnt interoperability framework]. Michael Cross expects the proposal to get a "roasting from the usual suspects". And he...