"We'll be able to sign up for ID cards at Tesco"

south west | corporations | news report Wednesday May 28, 2008 13:41 by no2ID supporter

no to the database state - a news update

Tesco to provide ID? Big Brother aims to capture every email, phone call, webpage seen and more - plus local groups info in the South West

++ ALERT ++

+ "We'll be able to sign up for ID cards at Tesco" - The Telegraph 12/5/08 +
Almost unnoticed last week, the Government announced it had shaved another £1 billion off the cost of its proposed identity card scheme. It did so by deciding to let the "open market" capture citizens' biometrics, effectively outsourcing the cost of enrolling people on to the ID database. You could end up getting your fingerprints taken at a supermarket, rather than at a passport office as originally proposed.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opin...2.xml

+ Big Brother’ database for phones and e-mails - The Times 20/5/08 +
A massive government database holding details of every phone call, e-mail and time spent on the internet by the public is being planned as part of the fight against crime and terrorism. Internet service providers (ISPs) and telecoms companies would hand over the records to the Home Office under plans put forward by officials.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry...3.ece

++ PLEASE JOIN NO2ID – WE NEED YOUR HELP ++

NO2ID has been an active campaign group for almost four years now and during this time we have lead a massive increase in public awareness of "the database state" (a phrase invented to explain the danger we saw). Clearly the database state continues to grow. The ID cards scheme is just starting to bite, but a connected government initiative seems to be launched every other month or so, none of them well thought-out, all of them a danger to privacy and liberty.

To keep up with all this and keep you informed takes time. To do something about it - whether that is campaigning, or lobbying politicians and journalists, printing information leaflets and adverts, or organising public events - inevitably also takes money. Which means we need members. Almost all our funding now comes from membership fees and donations from individual supporters - we are hardly likely to get a government grant and we stay independent of any political patronage of any kind.

Of the 20,000 people who are sent this newsletter, fewer than 1,500 are subscription paying members of NO2ID. If you value the information we send you and the work we are doing then please join.

There is a membership form at: http://www.no2id.net/downloads/membForm.pdf

If you are already a member, then thank you. You are the reason we are able to do our work at all.
+ BBC Politics Show seeks volunteers for surveillance item +
The BBC television programme 'The Politics Show' is looking for volunteers to appear in a film about data-sharing and surveillance. The film is to coincide with the soon to be released report on data sharing by the Information Commissioner and Mark Wallport of the Wellcome Trust. The programme's producer Ian Lauchlan said: "I'm trying to find a young family who might help us illustrate how widely data-sharing and the surveillance culture permeates all aspects of our lives. We'd like to film them trying to get through a week without revealing any data information about themselves." Anyone fitting the criteria who would like to be in this worthwhile film should contact Ian Lauchlan directly on 0207 973 6083 or 07912 583 234.

+ LOCAL GROUPS NEWS +
We now have local groups in 44 of the 69 proposed locations for interrogation centres - of which just 3 have yet to open. Parliamentary answers indicate that the most active centres are: Belfast, Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Newport, Peterborough and Sheffield.

For information on your nearest interrogation centre, see www.no2id.net/getInvolved/idCentres.php. If you can help set up a local group in one of the remaining locations, or anywhere else in the UK, please contact Matty on local.groups@no2id.net

South West Local Groups listed here;
http://www.no2id.net/localGroups/#South%20West
Get involved!

What just happened?
+ Surveillance Inquiry evidence sessions +
On Wednesday (21st May) the House of Lords Constitution Committee held an evidence session as part of their Surveillance and Data Collection inquiry. The Committee took evidence from Sir Christopher Rose (Chief Surveillance Commissioner) and then from Sir Paul Kennedy (Interception of Communications Commissioner). On 14th May the committee took evidence from Dr Victoria Williams and Professor Ian Loader.
Listen to the evidence sessions at:
http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/VideoPlayer.aspx?meet...el=ok
http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/VideoPlayer.aspx?meet...=1816

+ Crewe and Nantwich by-election and ID cards +
One of our supporters recently managed to corner some of the prospective candidates in today's (22nd May) Crewe and Nantwich by-election to ask them their views on the government's ID scheme. David Roberts (English Democrats) said he was personally in favour and when pressed as to why said it was mainly to distinguish between those who are 'English' and entitled to use public services and those who come from elsewhere and are not. He also said that it would reduce crime but didn't elaborate on how. Elizabeth Shenton (Liberal Democrats) said she is opposed on grounds of infringement of civil liberties, cost and unworkability. Edward Timpson (Conservative) also said he was opposed on cost, doubt as to its usefulness and civil liberties concerns. Meanwhile the Labour campaign has been mired in controversy over a leaflet attempting to turn voters against the conservative candidate because he opposes (to quote the leaflet)“making foreign nationals carry an ID card”. (See “ID in the News” section below for more on this story).

+ Thanks +
On the subject of the Crewe and Nantwich by-election – many thanks to the benefactor that paid for our NO2ID adverts in the Nantwich Chronicle.

+ Belgian banks: Bring us your ID or we’ll keep all your money +
Banks in Belgium are warning customers that their accounts will be blocked from 15th May unless they take their ID cards round to a local branch. The banks are legally obliged to take copies of each client’s ID.

+ Global data leaks +
The personal data of six million Chileans were stolen at the beginning of May and briefly published on a website. They included names, e-mail addresses and street addresses. A hacker said he stole them online from the health ministry, the electoral authority and the state-run phone company. Not to be outdone, the highly official website of the Swiss Justice and Police Ministry has just published a confidential document about Europe’s Schengen immigration control arrangements. But it was all a “mistake” a ministry spokesman said – prompting some Swiss to wonder what the ministry might get up to with even more important data, namely theirs. Next door, the German government has admitted that 189 desktop computers, 328 laptops, 38 data storage devices and 271 mobile phones belonging to the federal authorities went missing between 2005 and 2007. 48 of them disappeared outside Germany. Some contained sensitive or secret data.
"ID" in the news

+ Big Brother’ database for phones and e-mails - The Times 20/5/08 +
A massive government database holding details of every phone call, e-mail and time spent on the internet by the public is being planned as part of the fight against crime and terrorism. Internet service providers (ISPs) and telecoms companies would hand over the records to the Home Office under plans put forward by officials.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry...3.ece

+ Why the police now have to ask teenage muggers: 'Do you eat chips?' - Daily Mail 17/5/08 +
Imagine a country where strangers have the right to ask intrusive questions and store the answers on a database. Where everyone from police officers to leisure-centre staff can demand: "Tell me who you feel close to?"
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-567003/Why-poli....html

+ NHS IT 'at least four years late' – BBC News online 15/5/08+
It will be at least 2014 - four years later than planned - before a single NHS electronic patient records system is in place in England, say auditors. The head of the National Audit Office, Tim Burr, said the challenge was "far greater than envisaged".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7403286.stm

+ Labour activists' rage over 'racist' Crewe campaign - Politics.co.uk 13/6/08 +
Labour activists are condemning their party's by-election campaign in Crewe and Nantwich after an election leaflet was released which party members say appeals to BNP voters. The leaflet in question shows a checklist of policies which Edward Timpson, the Conservative candidate, opposes - one of which reads: "Do you oppose making foreign nationals carry an ID card?"
http://tinyurl.com/6gkygd

+ Web passports system canned as costs soar - ComputerWeekly 13/5/08 +
The Identity and Passport Service (IPS) has cancelled an over-complicated replacement online passport applications system after rising costs and glitches, which led to about 5,000 applications becoming stuck in the system. The IPS told Computer Weekly that it has written off £10.9m in development costs because of the cancellation of the Electronic Passport Application system EPA2.
http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/05/13/23065...r.htm

+ We'll be able to sign up for ID cards at Tesco - The Telegraph 12/5/08 +
Almost unnoticed last week, the Government announced it had shaved another £1 billion off the cost of its proposed identity card scheme. It did so by deciding to let the "open market" capture citizens' biometrics, effectively outsourcing the cost of enrolling people on to the ID database. You could end up getting your fingerprints taken at a supermarket, rather than at a passport office as originally proposed.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opin...2.xml

+ Update: government admits ID cards have no business case - ComputerWeekly 12/5/08 +
The government has, for the first time, admitted publicly that it cannot quantify in financial terms the expected benefits from its controversial £5.4bn National Identity Scheme (NIS). James Hall, chief executive of the Identity & Passport Service, said, "Many of these benefits [of the NIS] may be hard to quantify and potentially harder to articulate in financial terms within the scheme's business case."
http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/05/12/23063...s.htm

+ Data dunces – The Sun 10/5/08 +
There's nothing more private than your medical records. Yet it seems anyone can access the NHS computer database. The Government promised it couldn’t happen. Yet a GP finds he can log in without security checks. Labour insist that the ID cards database will be totally secure. But how can we believe them?
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/sun_says/arti...7.ece

+ Sunderland council deploys secure information sharing to tackle anti-social behaviour - ComputerWeekly 8/5/08 +
Sunderland City Council has installed Cyber-Ark's Inter-Business Vault to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour. The Information Sharing and Assessment (ISA) initiative is a multi-agency project that allows the services within Sunderland, including the police and council, to share information and work closely together.
http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/05/08/23061...l.htm