Disillusioned Discordian

Some bright spark running his franchise of Budgens thought it might be a good idea to pander to neo-labour’s crusade against drinking. Perhaps they hoped to receive some accolade for finding a new way to infringe civil liberties on a whimsical excuse. You can imagine now his smug joy at installing an expensive facial biometric scanning system. Soon they would be happily scanning customers that brought booze and sending their details off to Charton Ltd to be stored on a massive database. The the system would be beeping away, picking out young un’s and allowing adults to prove their age… or so he thought.. of course the only problem was it’s illegal. It might have been obvious that collecting information from minors’ without their permission breached the Data Protection Act, but in their zealous joy to stamp out the evil under age drinking they were blinded. Well my scoop is that following numerous complaints the Franchise that runs Budgens have now distanced themselves:

“The facial recognition equipment recently installed in this Budgens store was in no way commissioned by Musgrave Retail Partners GB but was put into place by the owner of the store.

He has agreed to remove his equipment.”

So it’s a small victory for civil liberties, and the common sense of those that run the Budgens franchise to pull this indivdual owner into line!

Yorkshire NO2ID has created it’s own blog, by the look of things it seems to be in it’s early stages. Lets hope that it provides another useful source of information on the campaign to stop ID cards

Following on from my rant in which I drew attention to the German Hacker group who managed to obtain copies of a German Ministers prints, NO2ID have teamed up with privacy International to offer a reward for anyone who can obtain the prints of Gordon Brown and Jacqui Smith. The Government keeps claiming that Biometric technology is a ‘magic bullet’ that will help secure our Identities on the proposed National Identity Register. The sad reality is that fingerprints are easy to get hold of (from glasses, door knobs etc). Although they are unique to each of us, we also leave copies off them whether we go! Anyone can relatively easily create a mold from a print and use this mold to commit identity theft.  Any government minister who stands up and suggests that ID cards will secure our identities because they use biometric technology can now been seen as a complete laughing stock to the rest of the nation. It is reported that Brown’s prints are rumored to be found alongside Blair’s on a dossier for the Iraq war.. first to find it wins the prize.

You can download copies of the poster if you want to put some up yourself from Privacy International

I hate to bash the first female Home Secretary but Jacqui Smith really is a stupid piece of shit. On the 6^th March 2008 she made her ‘speech’ on ID cards. I say speech but really that implies that the sounds coming out of her mouth were forming a coherent and rational position. Even in this jaded and cynical post-Blair world in which our brains have been cluster fucked to the point of oblivion by a vast array of overpaid  spin doctors,   who collectively group wank over  each others powers of sophistry,  which they publish in their seedy & ego pandering  ‘PR weekly’, she still inspires a heartfelt rage. The type of rage that makes the 1968 student protest look like a candy box  (Christmas special) ITV ‘dramatization’ of Dickens in which Jamie Oliver cooks the Christmas feast for Tiny Tim.  She is incapable of actually understanding the most basic points of IT security when it comes to ID and the Database state: 

“Because your name will be linked by your fingerprints to a unique entry on the National Identity Register, you will have much greater protection from identity theft - no-one will be able to impersonate you, like they can now, just by finding our your name and address and personal details.” 

Uh well maybe, but then again if you had a brain rather than a sponge for soaking up neo-labor double speak you would have realized that this is going on. As much as I will enjoy purchasing a copy of Blair’s fingerprint and using it to steal his identity thus draining his various Swiss bank accounts of the proceeds from his pathetic lecture tours I am slightly worried about my own identity.

Does a cheesy pop song have the power to change the world.. I think so…..

The information commissioner’s Office (ICO) has successfully put the planned biometric fingerprinting scheme at the new Heathrow Terminal five (sorry T5) on hold. The scheme was meant to be a shinning example of new biometric security measures, in line with the current moves within the EU to collect this information on all travellers. The technology itself has some serious flaws in that it is relatively easy to fool the scanners by creating a fake print from products you could by in a local iron mongers. It also seems to be a step too far for most people, in terms of an unwanted intrusion into our private lives. There is something very personal about giving over such data, that effects people on a psychological level that goes beyond the rational arguments against this level of state surveillance.

The ICO is the thin red line protecting the citizens against the state and perhaps more worrying private companies intrusion into our private lives. BAA is stating that the scheme is on hold. They might be able to persuade the ICO to let the scheme go ahead if the data collected is destroyed promptly with proper safe guards. Unfortunately once this kind of systematic collection has started, it’s only a very short matter of time before various agencies start requesting access to it, or requesting it is placed on file for future use. We are not just talking about the usual suspects of Interpol, the Police, Immigration control and MI5, but also hundreds of other governmental and quasi-governmental agencies. How long before the local Job Office starts asking for details on passengers passing through the terminal in order to track down benefit frauds going on holiday?

The NO2ID campaign in Leeds is starting to pick up pace now with regular meetings now taking place. Already a street stall has been held which received a good response from members of the public wanting to find out what they could do to stop the introduction of Identity cards. The Student Union at the University of Leeds has recently agreed a motion opposing ID cards. It is hoped that this will be the first of many local organizations within the city to support the campaign against ID cards. Greg Mulholland local Lib Dem MP for Leeds North West has also stated his opposition to the government’s plans, and as lobbying of other local politicians is underway hopefully many more will follow suit. NO2ID now runs public mailing lists for local groups which you can join straight from their website, have a look and see if there is a group in your area you could get involved with. There is also a facebook group for Leeds NO2ID. Meanwhile across Yorkshire the campaign against ID cards is gathering momentum with Bradford and Selby groups increasing in their activities.

I’ve just about calmed down from my annoyance that resulted from reading about the EU’s plan to collect biometric details. For some time now the British Government has been gearing itself up for a data capturing exercise. Much like Caesar Augustus and William the Conquer neo-labour thinks that you need to know a vast amount of information about every individual. This opens countless people to unwarranted snooping, surveillance and puts them at risk of data theft. Currently there are over 1,000 requests to put people under surveillance every day. Not just by the police but by hundreds of different government agencies. A friend of mine at work recently had her local council take covert pictures of her putting out rubbish on what was meant to be the wrong day (I kid you not). Just one such example with our nations obsessive desire for the ‘security’ that this type of surveillance is meant to produce. The sad thing was there was nothing in the photo to say what day it was! Doh!

Well now it seems the EU (possibly soon to be lead by euro-president Blair) want in on some of the action. Not only are they marching ahead with the sharing of information between police forces, and pushing for an EU wide ID card. They are also planning to fingerprint and collect data on everyone (including EU citizens) traveling between member states. This information will be entered into a database (you know those things that are now used to scare you about not having a TV license or road tax) and nice automated algorithms will be run to determine things like your ‘threat level’. It’s hard enough fighting against the UK government to protect freedoms against the ID cards scheme, the prospect of campaigning against the EU as well is rather disheartening.

There was news today that two major companies bidding for the commercial contract to develop the governments ID card scheme have pulled out of the bidding. Sources close to the companies have cited their frustration with the IPS’ uncertainties with the time line and design criteria of the scheme. This follows the leaked news that the planned implementation for Biometric ID cards for the majority of UK citizens will now be delayed until after the next election. Leaked documents are always a positive sign that ministers and civil servants within government are opposed to the scheme. My political speculation is that the government is seeking to do two things by delaying full roll out for ID cards.Firstly they get to trial the complex system on smaller more manageable groups of society. Initially this year it will be foreign nationals that get ID cards. This ties in nicely with the international efforts to setup ‘E-Boarders’ to control the flow of populations. As a demographic group, they have has less political clout on the national political scene; or in other words, people will be less bothered if a foreign national is compelled to have an ID card. Various security fears such as terrorism, illegal immigration and illegal working will also provide the Government with a stronger hand in pushing out ID cards to this group of the population. The next stage of roll-out will be ‘trusted’ peoples’, this phrase sounds creepy, and refers to those in the security forces, civil servants etc. It is probably deemed that those in this sector are less likely to be opposed to ID cards as their role is in part to be an instrument of the state. In this sense they will become the trusted ID card carrying citizens of the state, whereas the rest of us will be the ‘un-trusted’ masses; possibly capable of civil disorder. Finally young people seem to be signalled out. In part because this group will all be requiring their first new passport this makes them unable to ‘Renew for Freedom’; but also because the government could use secondary legislation such as those that govern the sale of alcohol, tobacco, and the provision of student loans to bring in compulsion via the back door. This would avoid them facing a possible defeat in the House of Commons on over the issue of compulsion in the ID card Act 2006. If all goes to plan for them then a vast swath of the population would require an ID card to partake in society, whilst they could maintain they were not ‘compulsory’ and without and changes to the ID card Act 2006.The second benefit to the government is that this moves the issue of compulsory introduction of ID cards until after the next election. With the Lib Dems and Conservatives strongly opposed to ID cards it is one of the few issues that really sets the parties apart. The threat of civil disobedience against ID cards has the government is scared to have the issue being fought out towards the end of a parliamentary term. Instead they want to fudge the issue and sneak it in bit by bit over a longer period of time.However the planned development of ID cards is now being driven by the political agenda, rather than a considered ID project plan. Neo-labour has to delay implementation and change the nature of the scheme as it develops as they don’t have the political clout to set out their plans in advance. This is bad news for the companies though as anyone who has worked on a large IT project will tell you, you need a clear and precise outline of the design requirements and a time table for implementation to create a successful project.No wonder this ill thought out scheme which the British public are soon to defeat is starting to seem like a less and less attractive business proposal for the large IT companies. 

The clunking Stalinist fist of Gordon Brown was today tempted into showing it’s hand on ID cards by the vacuous face of modern politics ‘Eton twat-boy Cameron’. There have been hopes amongst many of opposed to ID cards that following a series of momentous government cock-ups over data security Brown might quietly drop the ID card scheme. After all his premiership isn’t looking all that rosy at the moment, not only is he is storing up troubles with the Unions by trying to settle three years worth of shit pay rises with the public sector. He is also apparently still intent on pushing through ID cards. Yes he confirmed today in PMQs that the government’s policy is still to make ID cards compulsory following the required vote in parliament and how the voluntary scheme works.

This is nothing new however. The IPS website states “The National Identity Scheme will eventually become compulsory. This means that all UK residents over 16 will need to have an ID card. However, you will not need to carry your ID card with you.” Note no mention that the legislation to make them compulsory has not yet passed parliament. When asked in the Observer on the 6^th January about Id cards Gordon made the following statement ““under our proposals there is no compulsion for existing British citizens.”. I find it hard to imagine possibly what made him say this given that it has been government policy all the long to make ID cards compulsory. Something the Home Office website is all to happy to boast about.  I’m guessing it’s either A Incomeptance or B an attempt to sneak ID cards in by portraying them as innocent and voluntary.

Brown is of course a politician, which is perhaps why he can get away with using phrases like voluntary to describe the process of automatically being given an ID card when applying for a passport. Yes it’s voluntary so long as you want to forge your right to freely travel abroad. What happens when the private sector makes producing an ID card a nessiary requirement to Hire a Car, Rent a House, Have a Mortgage, Open a bank account? Will it still be ‘Voluntary’ then?