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British Telecom Pushes Universal ID Check System
miladus writes "URU (You Are You) is a new ID verification scheme from BT designed to
allow government and businesses to confirm identities on the net. The BBC has a full report on how, according to BT officials, 'URU will be a major ingredient in transforming and joining up government... and how it will
become ubiquitous for citizens, businesses, etc.'. Apparently, URU complies with European privacy laws."
Nothing I would want more than a porn site to have my phone number, and therefore access to my name and address.
Or any kind of site for that matter.
You say you want a revolution....
to the new Big Brother era.
How long before everyong revolts?
Does the URU fulfill American privacy laws? (not that it matters much anymore after the USA PATRIOT Act...)
That is a step in the right direction, but does anyone see a problem with that solution? If my identity has been compromised, then maybe my e-mail is also compromised...
Very popular slashdot journal for adul
The only thing that would make this scheme different that current identification methods is the automatic notification (by email) any time the URU identity is used:
It... will e-mail them every time their ID is requestedI suspect that someone's URU ID could be misused by someone else as easily as any other ID, but at least you would find out about such misuse before the cops/creditors come pounding on your door.
Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise. - William Shakespeare
And within a year you will have to use it to authenticate with your ISP's proxy server.. (And no direct connection to the internet).
The possibilities are endless for abuse ......
echo '[q]sa[ln0=aln80~Psnlbx]16isb572CCB9AE9DB03273snlbxq' |dc
The article seemed to suggest that an ID number used by the power company would be used as a sort of "universal id", but didn't offer any details as to how this would work (and why it would offer any more protection than any other kind of identifier). What's to keep someone from digging through somebody's garbage to obtain their ID from their electric bill? And what about people who don't have their own electric accounts?
It seems to me that with all the nifty encryption technology now available, Big Brother attempts like this could do a better job of preventing fraud than just coming up with another global id scheme.
Anybody have any pointers to more detailed descriptions of this plan?
from dictionary.com:
ubiquitous Audio pronunciation of ubiquitous ( P ) Pronunciation Key (y-bkw-ts)
adj.
Being or seeming to be everywhere at the same time; omnipresent: "plodded through the shadows fruitlessly like an ubiquitous spook" (Joseph Heller).
Is this something you really want your government to be?
I want to know where the people in the governmant are at all times.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
"And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." Revelation 13:16-17, KJV
"Love is a familiar; Love is a devil: there is no evil angel but Love." --William Shakespeare ('Love's Labors Lost')
This would certainly make sense, since they are probably going to decide to create a mandatory ID anyway.
Unlikely, although it's the wet dream of whichever lot happen to be in government at the time, the fact that none of them have managed to think up a reason for wanting it means that they've never manage to go through with it.
The traditional argument was that it'll somehow reduce crime, but if anyone asks which crimes will be reduced just ignore the question. Murders? Burglaries? Pickpocketing? Illegal parking?
More recently it's supposed to prevent illegal immigration. Of course that could work if people were actually required to show their ID so often that it was impractical to live without one, but even David Blunket isn't going to openly propose that.
Reality is that although the government, whichever party is in power, always desperately wants to introduce ID cards (for reasons never made clear), the public don't want them and the opposition, again whichever party that is, is always more than happy to make political capital out of tearing apart whatever flimsy arguments the government comes up with.
I don't expect an identity card to be introduced in the UK.
Democracy (this form of) in north america for the most part has failed.
When 65% of the voting population isn't voting due to mono-politics you can honestly say it has failed. If arab populations buy into it, it's our countries corporate sanctions that will be lifted and the business elite will enlarge thier coffers at our countries finacial credit expense. If our *leaders* succeed in pushing this form of democracy, there is only betrayal for the majority of arabs because this fiction cannot be maintained for long.
Correct, Britain has no mandatory ID card. That is, there is no ID card which a British individual /must/ have and /must/ carry. However, as to your final words.. you may not be aware of this.. but each British citizen /aready/ does have a mandatory identity. As well as having an identity, we also have a mandatory identity number in the form of a National Insurance number. Many also have passports and driving licenses. Having some form of digitally usable identity number has absolutly nothing whatsoever to do with mandatory identity cards. Not unless police can stop us on the street and demand our URU and arrest us if we don't have it on us. British Telecom is not an arm of the British security services, BT is a private company. Also, a mandatory ID card requires primary legislation.
Christians have had any number of prophecies which can be interpreted in any number of ways. Perhaps that justifies the application of any one of those prophecies to any subject that might be discussed on /., but it strikes me as a rather absurd approach.
Incidentally, I'm using "reactionary" in the sense of "being conservative" -- such references to the Bible, a book which though beautifully written is nonetheless a difficult source for either moral or intellectual discussion, smack of hysteria. Having a "very real concern" doesn't really mean anything -- I might be worried that aliens are employing these ids to catalogue us all and thus find appropriate mates for their martian daughters, but it doesn't make it my views any better considered.
I've nothing against biblical references, so long as there's any kind of real point or basis to them. But to start implying that the End is Nigh on the basis of nothing more than a silly government plan is, frankly, ridiculous.
As a member of the IETF for PKI-X, I can tell you that this whole thing is about to sweep the world. It all operates off Public Key Infrastructure. Essentially, you get a cert from the government that they can use to identify you. While there are a lot of legitamate uses, I think that all forms of government should be treated with a certain amount of paranoia.
How much more damage would Hitler have done if he had computerized access to everyone's banking records and been able to track every transaction? How about identification papers, travel permits, work passes, etc. that are signed with virtually unbreakable encryption? Let's see if that still makes you feel warm and fuzzy about your government knowing who you are when you send email, while your are surfing, and what you do when you are on line.
Queen BHDGary secures my bank
The problem with ID systems are that the more "uncrackable" they are, the more they are trusted. The more they are trusted, the harder it is to make things right when people circumvent those ID systems. Look at DNA evidence. Im sure that some day, some murderer is going to figure out how to plant somone elses DNA on a crime scene, thus implicating the other person. DNA= Guilt in the eyes of todays courts. The safest ID system is a minmally secure one. That way, people are naturally suspicious of an ID even if it appears to be genuine. Mistrust of ID's prevents abuse more than a so called "bulletproof" ID
You may have noted that, unlike many bits of Revelation, this particular prophecy is very specific. "A mark on the forehead or on the right hand".
Not "a card they had to carry with them", nor "a mark in the corner of their electricity bill". Neither of those meets the description.