No2ID - Autumn 2008 will be particularly busy for data and ID

south west | policing | news report Thursday August 28, 2008 16:02 by no2ID supporter

++ DIG DEEP TO FIGHT THE DATABASE STATE ++

With party conferences* imminent, the database state is higher than ever on the political agenda - due in no small part to NO2ID and its supporters (YOU!) working hard to raise awareness locally and nationally. But the battle is intensifying. - plus bristol meeting.

Autumn 2008 will be particularly busy, with key elements of the database state - including ContactPoint (a register of all children and their parents), eBorders (collecting information about the movements of everyone) and the Communications Data Bill (phone, e-mail and internet snooping) - poised to roll forward. The Home Office will start issuing 'ID cards' to non-EEA foreign nationals by the end of the year, with airside workers not far behind.

There's a huge amount still to do, which is why we're extremely pleased to be able to announce a new matched funding initiative.

>From 1st September 2008, the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust Ltd has generously agreed to match, pound for pound, any *new* income that NO2ID receives. Which means that for every pound you give from 1st September NO2ID will receive TWO pounds to spend campaigning against the ID scheme and database state.

Please send your donation by cheque to our office (please mark your envelope 'JRRT'):

The NO2ID Campaign
Box 412
19-21 Crawford Street
London W1H 1PJ

Or you can donate by credit card or via PayPal using the 'Donate' button on our website, http://www.no2id.net (left hand column)

Double your money offers like this don't come along very often so please, dig deep - encourage your friends, family and colleagues to make a donation. With your help we can stop this.

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+ Consultation on Data Retention Directive +
The government has launched a consultation on the Electronic Communications Data Retention (EC Directive) Regulations. Responses should be sent by 31st October by e-mail to commsdata@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk or by post to Andrew Knight, Home Office, 5th Floor, Peel Building, 2 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DF.
See http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/cons-2008-transp...inary

+ 8th September — NO2ID at TUC Congress +
Monday, 8th September at the Brighthelm Centre, North Road, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 1YD. NO2ID will be holding a fringe meeting to discuss the imminent impact of the ID scheme and what can be done about it. Chair: Christina Zaba, NO2ID Union Liaison. Speakers: TBC. Doors open at 6:30pm for a 7:00pm start.
+ 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

+ Bristol +

+ 3rd September - Bristol NO2ID meeting +
Wednesday, 3rd September at Tinto Lounge on Cotham Hill from 7 - 8pm. Come and meet your friendly local campaigners.

What just happened?

+ Border Agency Plan reveals latest ID scheme details +
Last week the UK Border Agency published a new Action Plan entitled 'A Strong New Force at the Border'. The document lays out the government's vision of "securing the border". Part of this plan is the introduction of ID cards for foreign nationals. The plan states that by 2011 "30% of resident foreign nationals [will] have an ID card", and furthermore that also in 2011 students and young people will be "given the opportunity to get identity cards". The document also hints at the ability to revoke 'privileges' of those enrolled in the ID scheme: "We will issue ID cards to foreign nationals to help deny the privileges of Britain to those who break the rules". What is clear is that the powers that the Border Agency claim will "secure our border" are in reality about the mass-surveillance of travellers, and the data collected will be shared with other agencies and governments.
Read the report at http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents...inary

+ Calls for Data Sharing disguised as census bashing +
The New Local Government Network (NLGN) has produced a report "Local Counts - The future of the census". At first the report looks like a straightforward criticism of the cost of the census: "£500 million of public money could be wasted on the next census," says the NLGN. However the solution they put forward is more databases and data-sharing. The NLGN is wrong to suggest that the census be replaced by information sharing and use of more government databases to compile census-like information. No replacement is required. Millions would be saved, and privacy protected far better, if the government just used some simple sampling research.
See http://www.nlgn.org.uk/public/wp-content/uploads/local-...s.pdf

+ The malign power of platitudes +
Whenever doubts about nationwide computerised health records or DNA banks or ID cards or biometric passports come up, someone will smugly say: “If you’ve done nothing wrong you’ve nothing to worry about.” Read more at http://www.no2id.net/newsblog/?p=929

"ID" in the news

+ Selling addresses from electoral roll to junk mail companies harming democracy - The Times 26/8/08 +
Junk mail companies should not be allowed to buy names and addresses from the electoral register, polling officers believe.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article4...6.ece

+ Child protection database 'will be used to prosecute young people' - The Telegraph 26/8/08 +
A flagship database intended to protect every child in the country will be used by police to hunt for evidence of crime in a "shocking" extension of its original purpose, The Daily Telegraph has learned.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2621163/Child-pr....html

+ Police hunting criminals will have access to child database - The Times 26/8/08 +
Police are to be given access to the Government’s new children’s database, which is designed to protect every child in England from the risk of harm or abuse, in order to search for evidence of criminal activity.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article4...97084

+ Consultants who lost data are working on ID cards - The Independent 23/8/08 +
The Home Office contractor which lost a computer memory stick containing the details of 84,000 prisoners is at the heart of developing the Government's controversial compulsory identity cards system.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/consultan....html

+ Prisoner data breach firm paid £100m - silicon.com 22/8/08 +
The management consultancy firm at the centre of the latest government data breach storm has been paid almost £100m over three years for its services by the Home Office and its agencies, with individual consultants from the company being charged to the department at an average of more than £1,000 per day
http://www.silicon.com/publicsector/0,3800010403,392742...0.htm

+ Most youth ID cards delayed until 2011 - Kable 20/8/08 +
The Home Office will wait until 2011 to issue the 'vast majority' of identity cards to students and young people. The National Identity Scheme Delivery Plan, issued by the Home Office in March, said: "We will offer identity cards to young people in 2010 to assist them in proving their identity as they, for example, open their first bank account, take out a student loan or start employment."
http://www.kablenet.com/kd.nsf/Frontpage/F9509DA3BA40F9...ument

+ Personal details of 4 million lost by Whitehall in just one year - The Telegraph 20/8/08 +
Sensitive data for more than four million people was lost by Government departments in the past year, on top of the high profile loss of child benefit records.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2587380/Personal....html

+ ID card 'propaganda' backfires as students revolt - The Times 18/8/08 +
Trust Britain’s youth to be characteristically ungrateful. The Government goes to all the effort of making a website for 16 to 25- year-olds to express their views on identity cards, and all they get in return is a solid mixture of scorn, sneering and scepticism smattered across their fancy new forums.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/educati...3.ece

+ ID card scheme could be blighted by bad fingerprints - The Telegraph 15/8/08 +
Home Office ministers have been told that it is "hard to obtain good quality fingerprints" from people over the age of 75, because the ridges on the pads of their fingers are not well defined enough to be read by an automatic scanner. This means the integrity of the national identity scheme, which depends on ten prints being collected from everyone in Britain over 16, may be compromised.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/256....html

+ NHS database awaits legal diagnosis - The First Post 12/8/08 +
Government IT projects have a pretty poor reputation. They turn up late, cost twice as much as you expect, and don't work when they arrive. But the NHS looks set to go one better. Legal experts are warning that its £6bn database could actually breach your human rights.
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/45094,opinion,recent-eu-c...abase

+ The dirty secret of your NHS - Daily Mail 24/7/08 +
Under the pretence of recycling, NHS computers have been dumped in Ghana, where their hard drives are mined of your confidential data by criminal gangs... while children die melting down the highly toxic empty shells.
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/moslive/article-1033832/T....html