Wednesday, December 05, 2007
What are ID cards for?
The Guardian has more on the evidence of the information commissioner, Richard Thomas, to the House of Commons justice select committee yesterday and in particular his views on ID cards:
He claimed the government remained confused about the role of identity cards, and accused ministers of putting too much faith in the value of information sharing.
Richard Thomas said: "Any massive collection of information like the identity card carries risk ... We still have some uncertainties about what the primary purpose of the identity card is ... Is it to improve policing, to fight terrorism, to improve public services, to avoid identity theft? I think there is a lot of thinking still to be done on its primary purpose."
He added: "Keeping this massive database with records of every time the card is swiped through a terminal is distinctly unattractive and would increase the risks."
He also questioned whether information on ID cards needed to be kept indefinitely. He disclosed that a stream of organisations in the public and private sectors had come to his office "on a confessional basis" in recent weeks to reveal that they had problems with losing data.
It seems that it is not just the government who are confused as to what ID cards are for.
He claimed the government remained confused about the role of identity cards, and accused ministers of putting too much faith in the value of information sharing.
Richard Thomas said: "Any massive collection of information like the identity card carries risk ... We still have some uncertainties about what the primary purpose of the identity card is ... Is it to improve policing, to fight terrorism, to improve public services, to avoid identity theft? I think there is a lot of thinking still to be done on its primary purpose."
He added: "Keeping this massive database with records of every time the card is swiped through a terminal is distinctly unattractive and would increase the risks."
He also questioned whether information on ID cards needed to be kept indefinitely. He disclosed that a stream of organisations in the public and private sectors had come to his office "on a confessional basis" in recent weeks to reveal that they had problems with losing data.
It seems that it is not just the government who are confused as to what ID cards are for.
Labels: ID
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Hopefully if one good thing comes from the missing benefit data it'll be the death of ID cards as a result of the government's incompetency.
I never want to carry an ID card and if financially possible I'd happily relocate to avoid doing so.
A Swansea Blog
KS Rees
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I never want to carry an ID card and if financially possible I'd happily relocate to avoid doing so.
A Swansea Blog
KS Rees
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