statism watch

Readers of this journal will rapidly note the similarity to the new Canadian border regulations, and the way they were implemented. After years of pressure from the US to adopt something compatible with the REALID program and its successors, Canada took a firm stand and allowed that, yes, you’ll be able to use your passport as well to cross into the US and, yes, the TSA (American border guards) will have access to Canadian identity databases. Britons, too, will be able to use their enhanced ID cards to travel throughout the EU. The UK and Canada have both moved that much closer to a regional, and thence an international ID card. It doesn’t matter what physical form it takes, the point is – what new data is being collected, and who has access to that data? The cards are irrelevant, obsolete, they’ve admitted they’re going to be scanning your fingerprints, they won’t need a card any more.

Flashback: Incoming CSIS chief to seek biometric data at border | UK: Shifting justifications for ID card scheme prompts call to scrap program | Ontario’s high-tech driver’s licences pose privacy risk: watchdog | Moratorium sought on RFID driver’s licenses | Smart licences now available for border-hopping Quebecers | UK Pilots threaten strike over ID card plan | UK Home Secretary: People ‘can’t wait’ for biometric ID cards | Saskatchewan adopting US-mandated ID card, to include RFID chip, facial recognition | North American ID card in the works through SPP

Alan Travis, The Guardian
June 30, 2009

Johnson accused of pressing ahead compulsory scheme by ‘back door’

British citizens who apply for or renew their passport will be automatically registered on the national identity card database under regulations to be approved by MPs in the next few weeks.

The decision to press ahead with the main elements of the national identity card scheme follows a review by the home secretary, Alan Johnson, of the £4.9bn project. Although Johnson said the cards would not be compulsory, critics say the passport measures amount to an attempt to introduce the system by the backdoor.

Johnson said he had halted plans to introduce compulsory identity cards for airline pilots and 30,000 other “critical workers” at Manchester and London City airports this autumn in the face of threats of legal action. Longer term plans to extend compulsory ID cards to other transport industries, such as the railways, as a condition of employment have also been scrapped.

But two batches of draft regulations to be approved by MPs tomorrow and next week are expected to include powers to make the passport a “designated document” under the national identity card scheme. This means that anyone applying for or renewing their passport from 2011 will have their details automatically added to the national identity databases.

The regulations also include powers to levy a fine of up to £1,000 on those who fail to tell the authorities of a change of address or amend other key personal details such as a change of name within three months.

Johnson said he wanted to see the introduction of identity cards accelerated for foreign nationals resident in Britain and for young “early adopters” for whom they would act as a useful proof of age. This trial is to be extended from Manchester to other parts of the north-west.

The home secretary is also looking at the possibility of waiving the £30 fee for those over 75 who want a voluntary identity card.

“There will be significant benefits to individuals from holding an identity card, which will become the most convenient, secure and affordable way of asserting identity in everyday life,” said Johnson. “Identity cards will also be valid for travel throughout Europe in place of a British passport.”

The home secretary emphasised his personal commitment to a voluntary scheme, saying it should be a personal choice for British citizens just as it is now to obtain a passport.

He also denied that there were any significant public spending savings to be made by cancelling the project saying: “This scheme pays for itself. If you cancel all you will get is diddly squat.”

This is a reference to the self-financing nature of the project under which it is to be paid for through increased charges for passports and the £60 cost of a biometric identity card.

The only way for ID card critics to avoid being included on the national identity card databases will be not to apply or renew their passport – and so not to leave the country. As about 80% of the population currently hold a passport, the Identity and Passport Service believe that take-up of the voluntary scheme would be high.

Critics argue that at that point a political decision could be made about whether it should become compulsory for the rest of the population.

Isabella Sankey, director of policy at the human rights group Liberty, said the home secretary needed to be clear as to whether entry onto the national identity register was going to continue to be automatic when applying for a passport.

“If so, the identity scheme will be compulsory in practice. However you spin it, big ears, four legs and a long trunk still make an elephant,” she said.

“And this white elephant would be as costly to privacy and race equality as to our purses.”

Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary, said the decision to drop the compulsory airport trials was symbolic of a government in chaos.

“They have spent millions on the scheme so far – the home secretary thinks it has been a waste and wants to scrap it, but the prime minister won’t let him. So we end up with an absurd fudge instead,” he said.

Guy Herbert of the No2ID campaign said the pressing ahead with making the passport a “designated document” made a nonsense of the home secretary’s assertion that the scheme was not compulsory.

“It is not compulsory as long as you don’t want to leave the country,” he said.

He said that the announcements made by Johnson were part of the Home Office’s continuing strategy to defend the scheme against cancellation by stretching it out further and further and by aligning it ever closer with the passport system.

Source | See Also under RFID: UK: Shifting justifications for ID card scheme prompts call to scrap program | Homing chips are CIA’s latest weapon against ‘al-Qaida’ targets hiding in Pakistan’s tribal belt | Clinton defends new border restrictions | Our man at Bilderberg: Let’s salt the slug in 2010 | Saudi files for ‘killer’ tracking chip patent | Ontario’s high-tech driver’s licences pose privacy risk: watchdog | Microchip in a pill to monitor your meds | Moratorium sought on RFID driver’s licenses | Smart licences now available for border-hopping Quebecers | Canada backpedals on sharing ID database with U.S. | Indonesian AIDS patients face microchip monitoring | UK Pilots threaten strike over ID card plan | Coming soon to your cellphone: Your credit card via RFID chip | UK Home Secretary: People ‘can’t wait’ for biometric ID cards | ‘Smart’ Credit Cards, Pilot Project set the Groundwork for Wireless Credit Wallets | New credit cards may shift unauthorized-transaction liabilities to the holder | Garbage bin fee hike possible before new RFID bins even hit the kerb | Did corporate lawyers put kibosh on ‘Mythbusters’ RFID episode? | Texas truant students to be tracked by GPS anklets | Satellites track Mexico kidnap victims with implanted chips | Federal parolees to wear tracking anklets in pilot project | RFID passport security defeated in minutes | Secret EU security draft risks uproar with call to pool policing and give US personal data | Saskatchewan adopting US-mandated ID card, to include RFID chip, facial recognition | Drivers licences with chips spark heated debate | Your turn to speak: Privacy chief seeking input on biometric ID plan | U.K. Develops Plan to Begin Microchipping Prisoners | Microchip bin tax scheme to go ahead despite failures | Ontario Privacy Czar Worried about High-Tech Licences | Toronto Residents Furious Over RFID Garbage Bins | Bin Brother is watching you | North American ID card in the works through SPP | Prisoners ‘to be chipped like dogs’ | Electronic Passports Raise Privacy Issues | Heibert says U.S. giving Canada time to implement enhanced driver’s licence

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