UK ID Cards Could Be Upgraded To Super ID Cards

An anonymous reader writes "Gadget lovers are used to punishing upgrade cycles but now it seems that the British ID card could be replaced with a 'super' ID card just a couple of years after the first one was released. The new card could be used to buy goods or services online, or to prove identity over the web. It's a bit of a kick in the teeth for the people who have already paid £30 for a 1st gen card that can't do any of these things."

Comments

It's not a kick in the teeth for anyone.

[onion2k]

No one thinks 'well, we've sold a bunch of these, we'd better stop innovating now in case we annoy the people who bought Version 1'. Buying something, then a few years later a better version coming along is not a "kick in the teeth". It's progress.

If the best argument you can come up with against "super ID cards" is that they're not fair on people with ordinary ID cards then you need to go back to Civil Liberties School.

Not really

[Spad]

It's a bit of a kick in the teeth for the people who have already paid £30 for a 1st gen card that can't do any of these things.

Yes, all 6 of them.

Re:Not really

[newcastlejon]

And you can bet your last penny that they claimed the cost back on MPs' expenses.

Re:Not really

[Xest]

Yes, sorry, you're completely right. You won me over with your awesome trolls and insults, they gave such a compelling background to your comments about how it'll cost more to drop the contracts than pay the get-out compensation, I just didn't know how you could possibly be wrong afterwards.

Your ability to see the future is amazing, you're right, I just know it now, I will vote Lib Dem, you're totally right, I mean, why didn't I see it? It couldn't possibly be the case that someone would be capable of changing their political affiliation through time depending on how different parties act or anything could it? I mean this is the UK, we don't vote for parties based on their policies or actions do we? That'd be stupid! We do it because we pick one, probably the one our parents supported, and support it like a football team, and who wouldn't support their favourite team no matter what right?

No, really though, the National Identity Register contract has been awarded to IBM and paid for already, the enrollment contract has been awarded to CSC and paid for already, these two contracts totalled £650m. The contract to produce the initial cards for the trial (which is due to last around 3 more years under a continued Labour government) was awarded to Thales, at £18m, this has also already been paid for. The total cost of the scheme until 2017 has been filed by Labour as £5.7bn, thus, any incoming government can save at least £5bn on the scheme by ceasing it, it is only the remaining £0.7bn that would be lost at most- money that could really be used to help cut the deficit right now, but still not enough to deter cancelling the scheme and enjoying the £5bn over 10 year savings.

Regarding the "ID card industry", of the three companies that won the contracts, 2 are American, 1 is French, so there's no more than a negligible benefit to UK industry from pursuing the scheme.

It's always been my dream ...

[Aceticon]

It's always been my dream to be profiled by law enforcement on the basis of my shopping.

Who knows, maybe my toilet paper buying habits exactly match those of a known terrorist and the men in black will single me out for "special attention". After all, who doesn't want to be incarcerated for 28 days without actually being accused of anything because of buying "the supermarket's brand in packs of 4 in average once every two months" just like the terrorists.

The good news is that using a Government provided electronic ID card for shopping will bring me closer to my dream.

Re:It's always been my dream ...

[WrongSizeGlass]

Your tongue-in-cheek request for attention hits the nail right on the head: Hello, Big Brother, can you please keep track of everything I ever buy and everywhere I ever go for me? Who knows, maybe they'll offer a CD at the end of the year with a summary of your purchases and travels for only £14.99.

A more important question though, is how on earth do you last two months with only a 4 pack of toilet paper?

Re:It's always been my dream ...

[Aceticon]

This is actually how I use my Oyster card: never register, always pay in cash.

I also change it for a new one once in a while.

£3 every couple of months is a great price to pay for a little bit of insurance if Britain ever goes the final bit down the way to Police State.

Yes

[Dunbal]

One single card that absolutely verifies who you are AND accesses all your finances. What a wonderful idea! What could possibly go wrong?

Re:Yes

[Kjella]

Oh god, the horror. We've had that since forever on VISA cards here in Norway, the banks have authority to issue government approved ids so some banks will issue a double function card with id on the back above the magnetic stripe. It's quite practical for people that don't have a driver's license or one card less if you're getting drunk and won't be driving anyway. Unless you really have anonymous bank accounts putting the information the bank has on file on your card is a convienience, not a problem. The money flows via the banks not the government though, pretty important point.

Wow, that's great.

[Hurricane78]

So I can have my identity AND my money stolen, together with everything else!

Wait, let me just quickly forge one of $currentDummyGovernmentLeader. You know... for the nasty stuff. ^^

I'm sorry citizen...

[damburger]

You cannot post on this web forum without first verifying your identity with the UK government. From the article:

The proposals currently under consideration could potentially see ID cards used to perform new tasks - such as authorising online transactions using chip and PIN and verifying the holder's identity over the internet - which are not possible with existing British ID cards today.

THIS is how they plan to implement the draconian measures in the DEB. They want all Internet activity linked to an ID card system that they control (and whose data they can sell). Am I being paranoid? My wife would say so. But if currently legislation pans out - and the incoming government have made no indications they wish to change direction - then the government will have on one hand an unworkable set of Internet regulations and another hand a technological solution that could potentially make it work. They will also have very rich men offering financial incentives to link the two.

The fact this will kill Internet freedom in this country stone dead is completely irrelevant to them. As with so many other aspects of life, career politicians simply do not care because they are outside their very narrow experiences, which have been aimed at public office for basically their entire life.

These people select themselves for leadership at private school (if Tory) or at university (if Labour or Lib Dem) - and never venture out of that world to experience the life, work, and leisure of ordinary human beings.

Re:I'm sorry citizen...

[Tim C]

These people select themselves for leadership at private school (if Tory) or at university (if Labour or Lib Dem)

What on earth makes you think the Labour and Lib Dem MPs all went to state schools? Have you forgotten the minor scandal a few years ago over certain high-profile Labour MPs sending their kids to private school?

Most people are not bothered

[chrb]

Most people in the UK are happy to be profiled in exchange for financial benefits. When the Tesco Clubcard was introduced it was so popular that people stopped shopping at other supermarkets like Sainsburys, which then had to introduce their own "loyalty card" schemes. Tesco announced last year that there are now 16 million active clubcards in the UK. As a comparison point there are around 25 million households in the UK , so a significant number of British households are having their shopping profiled in detail already.

Re:Most people are not bothered

[HungryHobo]

I don't really care if the guys who sell me cola profile me, their motive is simple- profit.
I do care if the people who have guns and the power to have me locked up profile me, their motives are complex and involved power, politics and money.

Re:Most people are not bothered

[Doctor_Wibble]

> Most people in the UK are happy to be profiled in exchange for financial benefits.

I'm not sure this is quite accurate - what proportion of people with those store cards have even the faintest clue what the profiling involves, or even that it is happening?

They will have signed up for the card on the basis of getting vouchers in return for shopping at ther same place. Even if the application form said anything specific about profiling - doubtful, as it would be in terms of 'we may use information' - it would be in the small print, and not many people bother to read that.

One card...

[afc_wimbledon]

One card to rule them all, one card to find them, One card to bring them all and in the darkness bind them (With apologies to you know who)

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Or not

[Errol backfiring]

No. Definitely not. I don't want my complete life to stagnate when I loose the ID card, for instance. Furthermore, the idea of coupling payments to the ID card (which is basically a passport) is so horrible I do not forgive a government to even suggest it.

Re:Or not

[Anonymous Coward]

Wouldn't it be easy if you had one card for ID, public transport, payments, building access, getting your treatment, etc?

Wouldn't it be easy if the government and corporations could track and timestamp every action of your life with no court supervision?

Re:Or not

[AlecC]

The problem with any such card is that as it does more and more things, more and more people can access data used by it. The fact that it can do more things makes it a juicy target for criminals, while the larger the number of people who have access to its data the more there are to be criminals or to be suborned by criminals. This means that there is in inverse square law of security against power of such a card. Nobody is going to attack my library card: all they could do is take out books in my name, and the only people who have access to the database are a handful of librarians. But single index to my entire life gives access to my bank, my medical records, my employment records, my tax records... and is vulnerable to attack by all those with legitimate access to any of those people.

Beware of revenge effects. Every technology has them - this ID card seems to me to have bigger ones than most.

"no one could buy or sell without the mark"

[master_p]

The above quote, although written many eons ago, seems remarkably accurate for the not-so-distant future...

Re:Or not

[AlecC]

Two problems. Firstly, define, and prove, "difficult-to-spoof" for all time. People have already shown the ability to spoof fingerprints. And all you have to do is to clone the identity of one card onto the biometrics of another, and you have a card that describes the criminal but accesses the victims data.

Secondly, much access to the data is not with the card but without. If people have access to one part of the data it is all to easy to access other parts. So the clerk who can legitimately check, say, that I have paid my property taxes may all to easily be able to access my medical appointments - including the one with a specialist in embarrassing diseases.

Re:Or not

[mdwh2]

We already have standard forms of ID (in the UK, the passport). That's not an argument for making the passport/ID card much more expensive, and tying it to a national database, or introducing laws criminalising people who fail to notify about change of details, or lost/damaged cards, and so on.

It's also not an argument for making the ID compulsory.

Re:Or not

[Fuzzypig]

Yeah it does doesn't it? However this is Gordon Brown's bunch of incompetent fuck-wits, at least until the next election when they will be replaced by David Cameron's bunch of incompetent fuck-wits! UK Government IT is all based on back-handers and directors taking cuts for projects that are almost always delayed and almost always nothing like what they were supposed to achieve. I wouldn't trust the Gov's IT mob to run a 1 table with 1 row Access database, they'd fuck it up or leave it on a USB on a train somewhere!