Leaked Government Doc Reveals UK ID "Coercion" Plans

BoingBoing is relating a hair-raising tale from the UK anti-ID-register group 'NO2ID' that claims to have a leaked government document [PDF] detailing how the UK government plans to "coerce" citizens into a national ID register. "UK campaigners NO2ID this morning enlisted the help of bloggers across the world to spread a leaked government document describing how the British government intends to go about "coercing" its citizens onto a National Identity Register. The 'ID card' is revealed as little more than a cover to create a official dossier and trackable ID for every UK resident - creating what NO2ID calls 'the database state'."

Comments

24 years behind schedule...

[contraba55]

Big Brother was British, wasn't he?

Ironically....

[Anonymous Coward]

In shades of 1984 , the report came from a new UK government agency called the Ministry of Privacy.

Re:Ironically....

[Anonymous Coward]

the report came from a new UK government agency called the Ministry of Privacy

You've got to be kidding. I know they're using 1984 as a fraking instruction manual over there, but there's no way they would actually start using the doublespeak Ministry names. That would be double-plus-unsmart.

Since when has any government not used doublespeak? It may not sound as ludicrous as examples used by Orwell to get the point to his readers, but government statements are inherently doublespeak, especially when dealing with each other.

Don't worry, the Ministry of Privacy Public Education Department will arrange for us to be educated that it isn't doublespeak. Your mind will be MoPPED.

"Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise." Thomas Paine, Common Sense

boycotting people with ID

[Anonymous Coward]

One of the problems when we have ID cards is that some people are going to break solidarity with the rest of us by getting one and it will be arranged that they get benefits from it. I wonder if we could have a campaign where we ask people for ID and refuse to serve or help them if they show national ID cards. It would have to start with a gentle campaign where they are just given some information and told not to show their ID card again, but after that it could be quite effective. Can this be done without alienating people? It would definitely be worth it. Something to change the equation so that the kind of people who refuse to think beyond their next fish supper can see a benefit from refusing ID.

Re:Who cares?

[MoonBuggy]

I suspect that you're right, but that doesn't mean that we're out of the woods on this one yet. Firstly, and most simply, is the fact that I can think of far better ways of spending billions of pounds than this. Secondly is that (as we have seen with no-fly lists) just because a database is inaccurate, it doesn't mean it'll be enough to put those in charge off using it for important and even life-changing work. Thirdly, as we have so recently seen, government agencies seem largely incapable of securing the data the they do hold.

I don't see the ID card project being the pervasive tool that the government seem to be hoping for, but I'm sure it's going to cause a lot of problems along the way.

Awesome

[hermit_tries_virtual]

After reading the PDF (I know it is against /. rules...) I have two questions:

1. Where can I sign up for the US version

2. Can the US integrate out system into theirs??? That would only help to protect us all!!!

I mean, after all, I am looking for all of the following:

1. I want to know that I have the right to be here

2. I want to know who you "really" are

3. I want to join a service that meet my needs

4. I want to be able to prove who I am

P.S. I want to point out my sarcasm, as my last few posts like this labeled me as a troll. Also, it is pointless to resist. Most everyone I know is willing to voluntarily sign up for department and grocery store "point cards" to save ~%5.....

Heck, after 9/11, most people I knew said they were willing to give up thier civil rights in order to protect us from the terrorists... even if they did not know what those rights were...

Re:Might be adventageous

[Kadin2048]

I think that the problem both in UK and in US is that people don't truest their government. I don't know if this is because of history of wrong doing in part of the government, or because of television and movies people automatically assume that anything new or something that makes governing efficient is an grand scale conspiracy to enslave the nation. My personal feeling is that democracy scales poorly, or at least not very smoothly, particularly in diverse populations. Democracy is predicated on the idea of compromise; of people finding a solution that works for everyone involved. If you have too many groups with radically different ideas of how the government should be run, to the point where a compromise between them can't be found, you start to get disenfranchisement and mistrust when "your" people aren't in power. The U.S. has throughout most of its history stretched the idea of democracy and compromise a long way; in some cases beyond the point where violence has been required to keep it together. Even today, there are not-insignificant voting blocs in the U.S. whose idea of optimal government would look like Iran with crucifixes (and who themselves have their own bugaboos -- "communists," "socialists," "abortionists," &c.); the trust you place in government today could be empowering your oppressors tomorrow.

There isn't enough common ground in the U.S. for everyone, or perhaps even a majority, to trust their government in the way that (based on your comment) people in Finland do. Putting that much trust in a democratic government requires that you put lots of trust into your fellow voters and in the people who run for office, and American voters, by and large, are too distrustful and too cynical to do that.

And on the whole, I think that's a good thing.

Re:Do it the easy way.

[Dutch Gun]

I'm not sure I agree that the ruling class is entirely at fault here. I'd lay the blame squarely on the large middle class who are often all too willing to trade away their freedom for additional security. It seems to be a tendency of human nature to value something less when no effort was expended in obtaining it. Many of us are fortunate enough to live in a time and place where our freedom has been paid for by the blood of others, but the unfortunate result of this may be that we can never truly understand the value of freedom until it's taken away again.

Make no mistake - politicians can only get away with this because not enough average citizens care (although the fact that a stink is being made over this is encouraging). They simply promise more handouts to various constituencies, and all it costs is more and more of your money and your freedom.

Big Brother's biggest backer

[byrdfl3w]

I guess it's going to be slightly more difficult to sneakily download MP3's once your details, signature, thumb print and threat assessment are linked to your ISP/IP address, then sold to the RIAA and the BPI...

Re:Coercion

[FireFury03]

for example, by making you produce your ID card when you get a job, so everyone is forced to either "volunteer" for a card, or else be unemployed.

Will you be allowed to sign on if you are unable to get a job because you don't have an ID card?