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British Telecom Pushes Universal ID Check System

Posted by michael on from the what-if-you-don't-have-electricity dept.

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."

5 of 277 comments (clear)

  1. Uh oh. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Looks like Oracle bought the U.K.

  2. Welcome... by Mourgos · · Score: 5, Insightful

    to the new Big Brother era.
    How long before everyong revolts?

  3. Re:What about possibilities in U.S.A? by Smallpond · · Score: 5, Funny



    What American privacy laws? Europe has privacy laws, the US has Equifax.

  4. And coming soon... by Kadagan+AU · · Score: 5, Funny

    The open source version: GURU

    --
    This space for rent, inquire within.
  5. Joy, Bliss. And the problems are .... by blowdart · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I can see obvious problems with this, having had my identity stolen a little in the UK.

    2 years ago I had a cheque (check) book and American Express card stolen from the post. They were stolen by either

    • Postal workers
    • People in my shared building

    From that information the thieves now had my full name, bank details and details of a credit card I held (albeit a cancelled cards and cancelled cheques). From this information they purchased mobile phones, billed to me and applied for numerous store cards. I only discovered this when the bills started arriving.

    Now, if BT's scheme goes off information available on the Electricity bill (keep in mind there are NUMEROUS electricity suppliers, so numerous databases to tie together), what is to stop someone stealing your electricity bill? Note that the electricy reference is per household, not per person. Now, tie this into the electoral role (which is already sold to marketers, and you can check and query it at your local library, so it's not private) that might almost be adequate.

    Except the electoral role is updated once a year. You can actually manage to miss it completly if you move at exactly the wrong time.

    Also people can choose to opt out of the data sharing that the electoral role provides (but not the information sharing to the credit agencies).

    Lets not forget that BT is a private company, not answerable to anyone except the shareholders. I'm not sure if this is better or worse than the government forcing a scheme through.