The Bewilderness

Daily mail catches up with the transparent society and the database dystopia

The Daily Mail catches up with the death of privacy, the transparent society and a dystopia based on the database state.

It is a Britain, indeed a world, where the private individual has ceased to exist, and one in which an unholy alliance of the state and Mammon rules our lives with powers that would have made Stalin sick with envy.

This dystopian nightmare is a distinct possibility thanks to what is probably the most significant invention of the 20th century - the internet.

That must be extraordinary rhetoric, even by tabloid standards: channelling No2ID as a horror story. Yet, however exaggerated, it brings the problems to the table and gives people food for thought.

Of course, the very existence of this channel will reinforce the Left in their authoritarian ways.

Informers wanted to demoralise Britain

Old Holborn considers the new disposition of the state and highlights, in that Hayekian warning, of the extension of the state through arbitrary fines and the presumption of guilt. What is forgotten is that the agents of the state are still few and far between: without the ballast of a mass party to back them up, they remain an irritant, rather than a overarching totalitarianism. One can live without hearing or seeing these actions in person.

Nevertheless, state functionaries will wish to find 'efficient' ways of exercising their power. The database state is meant to replace the mass party as a vehicle for co-ordinating and controlling all activities. Yet, some means of identifying and punishing perpetrators is still required, as technology is still insufficient to achieve this goal. Hence, the rise in channels for informing and denouncing those who dissent.

After all, East Germany required ten percent of the population...

Bankrupt britain bankrolls brown's bureaucracy

If the government is unable to manage the renewal of photocard driving licences, what hope for ID cards? The badly designed card does not clearly state the expiry date after ten years and now thousands are driving, unaware that their status is illegal and that their insurance company could refuseto pay out claims. Let us not forget that renewal is an opportunity for the quango to profit from its monopoly:

Mr King [President of the AA] said that it should not cost £17.50 to change a photo when changes of name and address on a driving licence were free.

“This is expensive bureaucracy and, with passports and the introduction of ID cards, there is wasteful duplication. We would also question whether people's appearances change that dramatically every ten years. Photocards for public transport can be much older than ten years, so why should drivers be saddled with the cost and inconvenience of renewal?”

Even better is the non-compliance of pilots with the demand of the government that all airport workers carry ID cards. Unconvinced by the value of this innovation, BALPA, the pilots union is refusing to co-operate. Worst case scenario is that their refusal would force them to stop flying. The government's recognition of this crisis, like all crises, was eerily familiar; (what crisis?):

No case had been made to demonstrate that ID cards would improve security, Mr McAuslan said, and he asked what would happen if airport workers refused to register for a card.

“Our understanding from the draft regulations is that the individual will be out of a job. This could be an individual who has served his or her country as a service pilot being told they are not now trusted. This is unacceptable and demeaning and we will resist.”...

The Identity and Passport Service said: “Identity cards will benefit workers – not just by improving security, but also by speeding up pre-employment checks and increasing the efficiency of pass-issuing arrangements.”

Three cheers for BALPA and god knows how little I support any trade union. Just remember that these are 'voluntary' ID cards you are forced to pay for, renew, and keep updated on pain of a criminal offence. I am with Old Holborn on the lampposts: on the assumption that Ministers would be  auseful stopping point for dogs to mark their territory.

Airport workers unite on no 2 ID

When government borrowing is heading out of control, and spending increases at 7% per annum, we know that a scorched Britain policy is in the mind of Brown. If he cannot have the seat, no-one can.

That is why we see the continuation of the Identity card scheme, which is now being demanded compulsorily of airport workers. The trade union, Unite, has opposed this on the grounds of civil liberties and practicality: ID cards do not work, cost their members money (at a time of stagflation) and increase state oppression. It is doubtful that abolition of ID cards was part of trade union demands of Labour.

If Brown is focused on the two year long haul, we can see that his mantra of tough long-term decisions is really a strategy for bringing in those policies in full that his government deems appropriate. Will we see an acceleration in implementation for ID cards, comprehensive schools, the nationalisation of the universities and road pricing?

Brown and ID Cards

We know who the enemy is for those who view Brown as a fresh face, willing to junk Blair's legacy and provide that X factor they yearn for (re: independent foreign policy, left-wing policies, ID free government). A report in the Independent on Sunday reports that he wishes the state to take a lead in private sector programmes on identity management, cutting costs on ID cards and ensuring the surveillance society:

Standardising the official ID card and any commercial schemes would drive down the cost and enable greater data sharing between police and firms. For example, police could be alerted as soon as a wanted person used a biometric-enabled cash card or even entered a building via an iris-scan door.

Watch two studies designed to draw in the private sector: a taskforce on identity management under Sir James Crosby of HBOS and a wider public sector review on identity information under Sir David Varney.

ID Cards: Information Mismanagement

Does this:

The government is battling to ensure that estimates of the benefits and risks of identity cards remain secret.

The freedom of information watchdog ordered the Department of Work and Pensions to publish its findings about how the cards could fight ID fraud.

Now the department has decided to appeal against the information commissioner's ruling.

have anything to do with this?

“Many” cases brought to the MPs’ attention showed the 20-day response time was not being met, either because public bodies lacked experience or re-interpreted the code of practice.

Some requesters were told an internal review needs to be carried out, meaning their requests were delayed indefinitely or for months on end, so officials could assess “public interest factors.”...

However the MPs also questioned the role of a “clearing house” – set up by Lord Falconer to advise on which cases can be referred by other departments, to help in assessing whether information should be released, or withheld.

While there is no evidence to prove the clearing house blocks requests or causes delays to the release of information, there is, paradoxically, no evidence to “refute those allegations,” the MPs found.

Charlie Falconer centralises the supervision of freedom of information requests in a 'clearing house' to ensure that the release of information is 'consistent'. The Information Commissioner is also criticised for the handling of complaints, due to the lack of resources.

Licking Lips and Entertaining VIPS

The firms circling the British proposals form a long queue of corporates preparing to feast at the public trough. After all, a successful application of a national register for biometric identities will sell well to authoritarians everywhere, whether democratic or not.

In the report, more than a third of the 47 companies listed as interested parties are from the United States, according to Corporate Watch. Most of the companies on the list are in the United Kingdom or Europe.

Several U.S.-based potential bidders, including Cogent Systems Inc., Datacard Group, EDS, IBM Corp., Identix Inc., Lasercard Corp. and Unisys, have met with British government officials to discuss the identity card plans, the study said. Other firms have expressed interest in the press or by other means.

Other U.S. companies that appear to be interested include CoreStreet Ltd., Computer Sciences Corp., Daon, Iridian Technologies Inc., PricewaterhouseCoopers, Sun Microsystems Inc. and Viisage Technology Inc., the report said.

US readers, if any (????), should take note. Lessons learned will be applied under "homeland security". Corporatewatch has its own agenda, which is extremely disagreeable, but their suspicions of computer firms is shared by others like myself.

Identity and Registration

Whilst the No2ID campaign has swung into action and attacked the government for its authoritarian and incompetent plan for identity cards, dependent upon a centralised database, there is a danger that the government's plan will polarise the debate that commenced when information technology promoted the collection and retention of more personal data. This was a development that restructured our concepts of identity and privacy, as the retention of data eased the ability of thieves to steal data and impersonate individuals for personal gain, that crime known as 'identity theft'.

As data is spread across as a large number of databases, it becomes increasingly difficult for individuals to police the dissemination or use of their personal information. Indeed, there is little reason to try chasing such phantoms, since privacy depends upon the secrecy of your own access to financial and other personal information. As such, there is room for a proper debate on how individuals can access and retain some control over information held by government bodies and other institutions. At one remove is the Swedish approach:

Simon Davies, the privacy campaigner who helped orchestrate the fierce critiques published recently by the London School of Economics, has urged MPs to work together to find a more modest solution, possibly based on Swedish experience.

They should "break with tradition and work cooperatively", Mr Davies told the BBC. Under the Swedish model people would retain much more control over the process of registering their identity, would be able to decide what information is stored, and would not become part of a national identification register.

At the other is the unwillingness of the government to listen to criticism from those worried about civil liberties, the costs of the proposal or the high  possibility of failure associated with the scheme. Instead, the  government had been accused of packing the new Standing Committee on the ID Cards Bill with Labour loyalists. The members of the Standing Committee D are as follows:

Baird, Vera (Redcar) (Lab)
†Blackman-Woods, Dr. Roberta (City of Durham) (Lab)
†Borrow, Mr. David S. (South Ribble) (Lab)
†Burnham, Andy (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department)
†Carmichael, Mr. Alistair (Orkney and Shetland) (LD)
†Drew, Mr. David (Stroud) (Lab/Co-op)
†Ellwood, Mr. Tobias (Bournemouth, East) (Con)
†Farron, Tim (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)
†Garnier, Mr. Edward (Harborough) (Con)
†McNulty, Mr. Tony (Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Nationality)
†Mercer, Patrick (Newark) (Con)
†Mountford, Kali (Colne Valley) (Lab)
†Palmer, Dr. Nick (Broxtowe) (Lab)
†Prisk, Mr. Mark (Hertford and Stortford) (Con)
†Robertson, John (Glasgow, North-West) (Lab)
†Ryan, Joan (Lord Commissioner of Her Majesty’s Treasury)
†Wallace, Mr. Ben (Lancaster and Wyre) (Con)

Edward Garnier, the Conservative MP, noted that none of the opponents of ID cards were members of the Committee:

On Second Reading last Tuesday, 34 people had spoken by the time that I made the winding-up speech for the Opposition. Some 24 of those—they included Members from the Government party—spoke against the Bill. Not one of those from the Government party who spoke against the Bill is on the Committee. Only nine right hon. and hon. Members spoke in favour of the Bill. Not surprisingly, all were Government Members. Of those, three were equivocal in their support for the Government. Again, not one of those three is a member of the Committee.

He went on to demonstrate that those who made loyal speeches in favour of the Bill  (Dr. Blackman-Woods, Kali Mountford and Dr. Palmer) had been appointed.

Further information on the role of the Committee can be found at Spy Blog.