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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'."
Big Brother was British, wasn't he?
In shades of 1984 , the report came from a new UK government agency called the Ministry of Privacy.
Perfect opportunity to set up a few convenient aliases--with all the work that they'll be getting, the folks registering will likely not pay quite as much attention as they ought to new registrants. Voila, government-approved IDs, guaranteed to pass any test for fakes.
Of course, getting past the initial screening may not be trivial--but investigation into that avenue may be worthwhile.
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree
Boingboing appears to be down; I get "connection reset." Here's the NO2ID group's homepage. Relevant searches on Google/Google News will probably turn up more information of interest than Boing Boing's shoot-from-the-hip sensationalism, anyway.
Please help metamoderate.
Since these ID's will be "official" for just about anything ...
Find someone involved in issuing them who has a gambling / drug / sex / whatever problem who can be bought / blackmailed.
The whole system breaks down when it depends upon the honesty of people.
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.
The database will be written in MSAccess and kept on someones hard drive until it crashes.
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
Why is "coercion" in quotes? Coercion is the business of government. Government is, after all, the organization holding a monopoly on the special right to employ coercion as a business model. Coercion is what defines government.
Put it this way: If the people actually volunteered to hand over their money and follow the aribtrary rules set forth by a central committee, then government would be entirely redundant. The reason why government exists is precisely because the people would not voluntarily hand over their money and follow that arbitrary set of rules.
Again, coercion is the fundamental tool which all governments MUST hold -- otherwise it ain't government.
Yeah, I am sure that the "gestapo" took the site down because they don't want anybody to see it...it couldn't possibly be that the pdf that was linked to was several MB, and there are a lot of people trying to get to it.
I take it back, the IPS are responsible for this, I just didn't spot it because it was written in the third-person.
Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
This is the British Government we're talking about. They have shown themselves, time and time again, to be completely incapable of completing any IT project. Every time they try, they award the contract to EDS, it goes horrendously over-budget and ends up being cancelled. Expect the big brother database to go online some time around 2050, only be able to store first names, and crash losing all data the first time someone tries to run a query.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Be careful what you ask for; the Government will probably choose MS SQL Server... DOH! :-)
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
You think a revolution is going to help? Replacing one government with another is only a temporary reprieve. Once the generation that dragged the last batch of tyrants to the guillotine dies off, people will forget what happened and grow complacent. They'll go back to saying "there ought to be a law" every time something doesn't go the way they think it should, and a new bunch of tyrants will corrupt the new government. Every revolution, even the American revolution of 1776, is a case of "Meet the New Boss, same as the Old Boss".
Go ahead and have your revolution. Found a new government on the ashes of the old. Swear in a new parliament while the heads of the old rot on pikes. It won't help you for long. You will get fooled again.
I write sci-fi for metalheads
Well, at this point, you don't have to give out your SS number, or have it scanned for travelling by airplane. Or soon...to be scanned when buying booze, or entering a bar...or maybe after that, for any CC transaction to validate identity.
You aren't forced to carry it with you at all times, and have that number associated with many actions you take today in every day life. It can't really be used to trace you to a very fine grained detail....yet.
It doesn't have an RFID chip in it (like our passports have now) that might could be used to track your physical movements during the day by scanners set up who knows where...
Unless you are careless and give it to anyone party not concerned with SS taxable income...you can't really be tracked that badly as of now with just an SS. Now...if you give it out willy-nilly to anyone asking for it for their database (instead of refusing to give it out)...well, you might be tracked better than I currently am by it.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
You See! This is exactly why we need a comprehensive government ID system. Then we'd KNOW who wrote that report. I can't wait until we can all just sit around tracking each other, then we'll finally all be happy and safe!
http://vancouvercondo.info
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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...
I agree with you concerning the Framers' reasons for including the Second Amendment. However, I have to ask you why you think that simply overthrowing an oppressive government and replacing it will do any long-term good? Do you think that leading Congress to the guillotine will work in a country where most people, thanks to public education, think that consistent respect for individual rights means leaving poor people to starve to death in the streets?
The American revolution was as successful as it was because of the people behind it, and I'm not just talking about the heroes you read about in school. Just about everybody in the colonies had at least a nodding acquaintance with the ideas of thinkers like John Locke and Thomas Paine.
An armed rebellion today would fail miserably, because most of the people are beholden to the government. They either get money directly from the government, or they work in industries that receive government subsidies. Do you think, for example, that public school teachers will do anything but teach the children in their ever-so-tender care that the rebels are anything but villains?
Before you can have a revolution, you need a people on fire with the lust for liberty. We don't have that, for the most part. Most people, if you were to tell them that it was possible to have a government that did not rob Peter in order to provide Paul with a welfare check, would laugh at you. Suggest repealing the income tax, and the first thing you'll hear is "how will the government replace those 'lost revenues', as if the government was ever morally entitled to that money in the first place.
A revolution won't work right now. The people are not ready; they do not burn with a passionate need for freedom.
I write sci-fi for metalheads
Unfortunately, I think that in the U.S. at least, most people *do* trust the government. I don't, and a lot of people here on
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
This is Slashdot, you can't take your opinion back! You flame your way out of trouble!
Asshole!
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
Honestly, I think we all have the necessary reading comprehension to see what the document is driving at. I don't need some ridiculous side commentary, which is wholly devoid of any useful insight, to help me understand the content of the document.
Frankly, the commentary sounds like the rantings of some extremist, conspiracy-theorist wanker, and does nothing but muddy the issues, not to mention make reading the document more difficult, as I have to wade through their irritating scribblings.
> Well, at this point, you don't have to give out your SS number, or have it scanned for travelling by airplane. Or soon...to be scanned when buying booze, or entering a bar...or maybe after that, for any CC transaction to validate identity.
Since you say social security number, I assume that you are an American citizen. You do know what the USA do with every foreigner entering the country, I assume? Taking 10 (!) fingerprints! Plus a scan of your passport, storing your credit card number, plus any other information in a related computer system. This gives the "land of freedom" quite a new interpretation.
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.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
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...