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Biometric ID Cards Trialled in Glasgow
StuWho writes "The Register is reporting a trial of Biometric ID Cards in Glasgow, Scotland. The trial is one of several tests prior to the implimentation of a universal UK ID card. It also carries reports of how you can evade the sensors by doing something as simple as crying. 'It costs the UK 1.3 billion a year, and facilitates organised crime, illegal immigration, benefit fraud, illegal working and terrorism,' Home Office Minister Des Browne said. He then said that the ID card would fix all this, but did not say how. It's not only in the US where governments are using the excuse of terrorism to infringe on civil liberties."
So you've got this national ID card with biometric data. Who gets to see it and how often? I haven't been pulled over and asked for a driver's license for over 15 years now. I have had to show a DL at the airport last year but what if I just drove everywhere? If this biometric card has a similar use pattern then it doesn't seem worthwhile. On the other hand, if they're going to set up roadblocks every few miles where you have to swipe the thing then I guess it will catch some baddies but how much aggrevation will that cause?
How soon before we hear stories of people having their eye extracted so that someone could get by these scanners? This has been portrayed many times in the movies. Cue the next Urban legend, "I woke up in a hotel room with one eye a different color, someone had swapped them on me!"
A 4% failure rate? What happens if it fails? Are you detained, denied whatever you were being identified for? This seems unacceptable as a form of identification. Until they perfect the thing, why not use thumbprints?
Karma, We don't need no stinkin' karma!
I can understand why you would want to license drivers and I can understand the need for a passport. But I refuse to accept I need a license to walk down the street in the country where I was born.
There is a similar trial with Biometrical data by lufthansa in Frankfurt. I dunno the detail... But you can read them here :
LH and biometric
German Airport and Biometric
Face it, whether you like it or not (I personally dislike it being traced and identified by my "biological property" for various reason, one being you cannot escape being recognized once they are in governement database...), biometric will come...
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
.. and that's DNA extracted from blood cells (the white ones). Run it through a lab-on-a-chip which will take all of, oh , 5 minutes these days and run a minimum of six microsatellite repeats on it. Guaranteed ID, although you might consider running eight satellites for added safety. One problem: the identification procedure is invasive (it has to be, to be sure that the DNA really comes from the person that is being ID'ed) and takes too long. But those are mere technical problems. All other forms of biometry can be circumvented (crying, enucleation of eyes, cutting of hands). You can even check the blood for freshness (eg by measuring calcium in platelets, takes a couple microseconds) to prevent people from carrying little bags of blood to have tested.
----- One learns to itch where one can scratch.
Now, will someone kindly explain to me how this cures terrorism (or any other crime for that matter)?
Contact lenses can defeat iris scanners, and thin transparent plastic can defeat fingerprint scanners.
There will be nore more "innocent until proven guilty" (not that there really is in England nowadays). Everyone will be under suspicion, and everyone will have to "prove" their innocence. With such a system where infallability is assumed by the powers that be (just listen to or read some of the nonsense David Blunkett comes out with), it will be very difficult indeed to regain your freedom once the system gets its grubby little fingers around your throat.
Stick Men
How so? If they arn't asked for ID now, why would they be when a new ID system is in place? And who's to say they won't just borrow their older sister or brothers card, and make themselves look a little more like said older sibling before going off to try and buy the stuff? It happens now, so kids will find a way around it.
In order to tackle underage drinking, you need to tackle the people selling it (I was very rarly asked for ID and when I was I usually managed to convince the person selling it that I'd left my ID at home).
Silly rabbit
I am one of the 1 Million people who would rather go to jail then carry a card.
I can understand why you would want to license drivers and I can understand the need for a passport. But I refuse to accept I need a license to walk down the street in the country where I was born.
Took the words right out of my mouth. See you in there mate. Shall I bring the scrabble?
Information minister Blunkett has said that there'll be a GBP 2500 penalty on anyone refusing to register for the ID card. That sounds like it would stop a lot of people from engaging in commerce. (Specifically, those who won't have any money left)
Do you have 2,500 pounds ($4470) to spare, or would you choose to be marked?
...I can understand the need for a passport.
I don't. The only purpose for national boundries is to restrict an individual's travel rights, and to create economic stratification for profiteering corporations. Without poverty, how can we motivate people to work?
What?
An ID card gives all information about you a single index. All you need is an indidividual's ID number and there's absolutely no technological reason you couldn't monitor their activities in real time.
"Speculative or implausably apocalyptic"? WTF? Don't you know *any* history?
Germany, 1938 6 million jews were executed by their government. The jewish people had "J" stamped on their identity documents. It's how they knew who to kill.
Rwanda, *TEN* years ago. 800,000 men, women and children with "Tutsi" marked on their ID cards were *butchered* by their government... With machetes.
Governments change in the blink of an eye:
Pakistan, 1999 a military coup took 17 hours.
Iraq, the fall of Saddam took a week and that was an outside country.
Greece, 1967.
Portugal, 1974.
Fuck, there was a coup attempt in Spain in 1981.
What planet do you live on? One where the CIA didn't help overthrow the democratically elected government of Chile and install a military dictator?
All these things *actually* happened. If you give the government the tools they'll bloody well use them.
Deleted
So the government plans to spend 3 billion of our tax money on this, which, given their record of delivering IT systems, will almost certainly mean 8 billion for a system that does half what was promised.
Then it wants to charge you 35 for getting an ID card, which you have to renew regularly. How do you identify yourself to get this card? Doh, using your existing unsafe identification.
It will do nothing to stop illegal immigration; it will do NOTHING to stop terrorism. It might cut down on benefit fraud a bit - but that's hardly a reason to make everyone carry one. It might cut down on "health tourism" a little, but the estimated cost of that is trivial by government standards anyway (200million). Also, of course, anyone willing to travel to the UK to use our public health system must a) be pretty desperate anyway and b) we can't actually, in this country, turn dying people away at the hospital door for not having insurance.
no taxation without representation!
What part of it isn't fact? The fact that 1.) The US government is slowly taking away civil liberties 2.) The US is using terrorism as an excuse 3.) That other countries are doing it? The current US government isn't even pretending that they aren't taking away civil liberties. Why you're pretending is beyond me.