UK anti-ID card campaign Gains Momentum

Jack writes "The British No2ID campaign, which opposes the creation of a National Identity Database to hold biometric data on all UK citizens, has created an online pledge as part of an effort to publicise their cause. The three-day old pledge has recently gained the attention of the blogging community, with bloggers bringing a thousand new signatories to the pledge today alone. Readers in the UK are invited to look at the No2ID FAQ on the plans for mandatory ID cards - some of it makes for scary reading." Update: 06/14 17:13 GMT by T : Side note: Tom Steinberg, director of MySociety.org (organizers of this petition) writes "The ID pledge is cool in that it is so big and successful, but it is a very small insight into what pledgebank.com can do." It's actually a much more general organizing tool.

Comments

Re:Anglosaxon paranoia

[Sanity]

I'm quite impressed at how the anglosaxon world reacts to ID cards. They are present in most countries, and are a far cry from a fascist tool.

Given that our anglosaxon world has had a far better history of economic prosperity and democracy than most of your non-anglosaxon world over the past century or two, perhaps your non-anglosaxon world could learn something from our "paranoid" instincts.

Are we to blame?

[kbw]

UK Governments have wanted ID cards for some time now for a variety of reasons. The reasons given now are security related, but previously tax, benefit fraud and immigration have been tapped as reasons.

I think those in power simply want more power. Is it not enough that the UK has the highest number of surveillance cameras per person? Unlike the US which emphasizes placing information in the public domain, UK legislation tends to emphasis privacy. (Freedom of Information vs. Data Protection.)

Probably the worst thing about the identity issue is the end goal of pulling together information from a variety of sources, all to be accessible by this unique identifier.

There's an interesting aside to all this. That is the ease in which we give away information about ourselves. A local supermarket may offer to discount your shopping if you use their loyalty card. But in exchange for a few pence, we readily allow the contents of our shopping basket to be recorded. We may complain about loss of privacy, but freely tell some marketing machine that we love lamb chops, but hate cheese, or we'll be away for Christmas.

So what's the big deal. We'll tell everyone about our purchasing habits for £10 per year, but complain because we have to coff up for a state system? No wonder politicians think we have the appetite for ID cards.