Sunday, June 26, 2005
Just because you think that the British Government couldn't get any more evil doesn't mean they should go out of their way to prove they can.
Personal details of all 44 million adults living in Britain could be sold to private companies as part of government attempts to arrest spiralling costs for the new national identity card scheme, set to get the go-ahead this week.
What? Wait! The fuck? The Government is desperately casting about to find a reason, any reason, to continue with legislation they've given a commitment to proceed with but which they have no rationale to continue. I know that succesive Governments have so enfeebled the unions that they have to turn in on their own members because they can't do much but ask the Government politely to stop being quite so nasty, but I didn't think the Government had lost so much of it's power to private companies that it was reduced to some sort of information sweet-shop at the train-station of business (hey, you spend a week dreaming of missing trains to get back from holiday then let's see you make a metaphor clever girl/guy).
The opening of commercial talks contradicts a promise made when the Home Office launched a public consultation on ID cards in April last year, when officials pledged that "unlike electoral registers, the National Identity Register will not be open for any general access or inspection."
See, I save time in the morning by not bothering to pretend surprise that the Government lies.
How does GlaxoShellOptimaxOdeoNewsInternationaLadyshave knowing details of my medical history/bank details/career progression help us fight the War on Terror again?
A report by the London School of Economics is to show that the card's cost to individuals will be around £200. In addition, firms could be charged up to £750 for technology that would allow them instantly to verify customers' identity through iris scanning or finger-printing, according to official documents. Whitehall insiders, who have already been passed a copy of the LSE report, say it also includes a warning by a former Nato security chief that the cards could be a "security disaster", are "too risky" to introduce, and could lead to a national meltdown in the event of a security breach of the central database.
(The LSE report gets released tomorrow)
Well, the Government could save time by giving the contract for the database to Capita because then we can start the disaster planning straight away.
The really scary things is that when Blunkett was in charge of the Home Office and could be dragged away from sucking American Conservatives toes, he seemed to have a genuine concern over data privacy. Admittedly it was an attitude akin to Smaug's opinion on dwarf gold in The Hobbit, that no-one should have it but him, but he hadn't gone as far as suggesting they sell the private information on before he quit his job. If the Government is truly thinking about this (and hey, the IoS might be wrong) they are now taking a more extreme position than Blunkett.
Told you it was scary.
Personal details of all 44 million adults living in Britain could be sold to private companies as part of government attempts to arrest spiralling costs for the new national identity card scheme, set to get the go-ahead this week.
What? Wait! The fuck? The Government is desperately casting about to find a reason, any reason, to continue with legislation they've given a commitment to proceed with but which they have no rationale to continue. I know that succesive Governments have so enfeebled the unions that they have to turn in on their own members because they can't do much but ask the Government politely to stop being quite so nasty, but I didn't think the Government had lost so much of it's power to private companies that it was reduced to some sort of information sweet-shop at the train-station of business (hey, you spend a week dreaming of missing trains to get back from holiday then let's see you make a metaphor clever girl/guy).
The opening of commercial talks contradicts a promise made when the Home Office launched a public consultation on ID cards in April last year, when officials pledged that "unlike electoral registers, the National Identity Register will not be open for any general access or inspection."
See, I save time in the morning by not bothering to pretend surprise that the Government lies.
How does GlaxoShellOptimaxOdeoNewsInternationaLadyshave knowing details of my medical history/bank details/career progression help us fight the War on Terror again?
A report by the London School of Economics is to show that the card's cost to individuals will be around £200. In addition, firms could be charged up to £750 for technology that would allow them instantly to verify customers' identity through iris scanning or finger-printing, according to official documents. Whitehall insiders, who have already been passed a copy of the LSE report, say it also includes a warning by a former Nato security chief that the cards could be a "security disaster", are "too risky" to introduce, and could lead to a national meltdown in the event of a security breach of the central database.
(The LSE report gets released tomorrow)
Well, the Government could save time by giving the contract for the database to Capita because then we can start the disaster planning straight away.
The really scary things is that when Blunkett was in charge of the Home Office and could be dragged away from sucking American Conservatives toes, he seemed to have a genuine concern over data privacy. Admittedly it was an attitude akin to Smaug's opinion on dwarf gold in The Hobbit, that no-one should have it but him, but he hadn't gone as far as suggesting they sell the private information on before he quit his job. If the Government is truly thinking about this (and hey, the IoS might be wrong) they are now taking a more extreme position than Blunkett.
Told you it was scary.
