British privacy advocates may have found an unlikely ally in the fight against the UKs national ID card system – the economic crises. The National ID card has become a symbol for the encroachment of the database state in the country which could monitor everything in peoples day-to-day lives. Now that the government finds itself to be running out of money, it has become a very distinct possibility that it may have to kill a few, what they call, “sacred cows” in order to cut the costs of public spending.
The report comes from the Independent where politicians are saying that the overall mood suggests that the ID card proposals might not go through. National ID could cost British taxpayers £9 billion, but with the economic crises forcing some governments to tighten their belts, that’s a price tag that is now causing parliamentarians to go into sticker shock.
More from the report:
A ComRes poll for The Independent today finds 55 per cent of voters favour public spending cuts to reduce Britain’s debts, against 38 per cent who want taxes to be increased. It also finds that the Tory lead over Labour has widened from 12 to 19 points since the Budget.
Issuing ID cards will cost more than £5bn over the next decade while scrapping the scheme now would leave the taxpayer with a relatively small compensation bill to pay.
Cabinet sceptics are preparing to use the public spending crunch to push for the scheme to be abandoned before the first cards are issued to British nationals this winter.
However, there is a growing recognition among ministers that after Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, signalled severe spending cuts in the Budget, some “big ticket” projects will have to be scrapped to help reduce the national deficit. The Home Office is widely considered to be particularly vulnerable to cuts.
No doubt this is welcome news to privacy rights advocates including an organization called No2ID which is an organization devoted to, among other things, killing the National ID cards in an effort to preserve privacy amongst British civilians. The organization has had a long and hard fought battle against the proposals by the government to mandate National ID cards.
Let’s get this straight — it isn’t just about identity cards. The government’s identity scheme includes a huge database to keep tabs on everyone, a massive infrastructure to collect peoples’ details, and a giant network of technology required to verify people against their cards and both of these against the database.
The card is just the tip of the iceberg.
The proposed National Identity Management System has multiple layers: The National Identity Register (NIR); individual checking and numbering of the population; making personal details into “registrable facts” to be disclosed and constantly updated; collection and checking of biometrics (e.g. fingerprints); the card itself (and other documents made equivalent to an ID card); a widespread scanner and computer terminal network connected to the central database; widespread use of compulsory identity “verification”; and data-sharing between organisations on an unprecedented scale.
Clearly, the tide is shifting. While not for reasons groups like No2ID would like, it still seems like a victory nevertheless.
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