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UK Can't Read Its Own ID Cards

Posted by samzenpus on from the forest-for-the-trees dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Despite the introduction of ID cards last November, it has emerged that Britain has no readers that are able to read the cards' microchips, which contain the person's fingerprints and other biometric information. With cops and border guards unable to use the cards to check a person's identity, critics are calling the £4.7bn scheme 'farcical' and a 'waste of time.'"

11 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. Look at Belgium by houghi · · Score: 3, Informative

    Stop making fun at Belgium and follow in their food steps. The readers are available and the source is open Dutch: http://eid.belgium.be/nl/Achtergrondinfo/De_eID_technisch/
    Main thing is that you see there are Linux drivers for it.

    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    1. Re:Look at Belgium by blaine+the+monorail · · Score: 3, Informative

      Interestingly, the first year the new ID cards were issued in Belgium, there was also a shortage of readers in police departments. If you had a new ID card, you were required to keep a printout of the data with you in case the police requested your ID :-) (it wasn't that bad though; the only information on the chip that isn't also on the front of the card, is your address)
      The police have enough readers now, so it's not necessary anymore.

  2. Where exactly are these cards? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    The cards dont exist yet and wont until 2011 or 2012.

    Still, dont let truth get in the way of a good rant.

    1. Re:Where exactly are these cards? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Its partly true, part headline grabbing. Some foreigners have been issued with cards, more as a trial than anything else, and readers outside this trial havn't been bought yet.

      Not much of a story really.

    2. Re:Where exactly are these cards? by Archtech · · Score: 4, Informative

      Actually, the first ID cards were issued last year (2008).

      --
      I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
    3. Re:Where exactly are these cards? by Sockatume · · Score: 5, Informative

      Not just asylum seekers, anyone here on a settlement visa. My wife's got to have a card now, even though she's here fully legitimately and I'm a full-fledged British citizen andsubject of HRH Queen Elizabeth the Second. And students are next in line, which as a PhD researcher means yours truly. If you refuse? Well, you lose your visa or your student status as appropriate. They're targetting those that are least able to object in order to build up an "installed base".

      --
      No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
  3. Re:"in response to an FoI request"?!? by Xest · · Score: 4, Informative

    About 9 years ago.

  4. Re:Offtopic? by Hognoxious · · Score: 5, Informative

    It is offtopic. "Dad's Army" was at best tangentially related to the government.

    What you want is "Yes, Minister". Down the corridor, third on the left.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  5. Re:"in response to an FoI request"?!? by Davidis · · Score: 5, Informative

    Freedom of Information Act 2000 Only exceptions to this in government is the Official secrets act. which means the information comes out in 50 years. this is better than the US where 90% of it never comes out at all. The Act

  6. Re:"in response to an FoI request"?!? by XSpud · · Score: 5, Informative

    Exceptions include information other that that covered by the Official Secrets Act.

    There are also a whole lot of exemptions, such as data that is commercially sensitive, related to criminal investigations or where disclosure would contravene the Data Protection Act etc. When a request is refused the reason for the exemption must be given to the requester.

    In practise the Act has meant a lot of information is now public where it wouldn't have been before.

  7. HRH Queen Elizabeth the Second?! by pjt33 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Her Royal Highness? Did Her Majesty abdicate?