ID cards combined with register of births, deaths and marriages

[matgb]

Bad news. El Reg reports UK ID card service mounts birth, marriage, death landgrab:

The UK Identity & Passport Service (IPS) has staged an identity landgrab on birth, marriage and death records. From April 2008 the General Register Office, which is responsible for recording these matters and is currently a directorate of the Office of National Statistics, is to become part of IPS, meaning that IPS will be logging you from the moment you're born until the moment you die.

The logic of the move is chilling.

There might be a little hyperbole in that report, but not much, and I agree with the general thrust. You will be stamped, you will be categorised, you will be numbered. Come in Number Six, your free time is up.

Other, possibly good, possibly bad news? They're getting efficient as well. Jennie's passport just arrived. Hand delivered. She only sent the forms off last week. So yay! we can book flights. But it seems they are now able to organise piss-ups in breweries.

Comments

[pmoodie.livejournal.com]

Hmm. It's all a bit sinister.

Still, at least it seems that we'll have an extre line of defense up here in Scotland.

[andrewducker]

From a purely technical point of view I'm in favour of it.

From a social point of view I'm in favour of it, providing it's followed by a few public scandals and the imposition of decent controls over it.

[pmoodie.livejournal.com]

But apart from the ethical questions, isn't it a bit dangerous to have all that data centralised? All your eggs in one basket, and all that?

[burkesworks.livejournal.com]

Wonder what will happen if the database gets entrusted to EDS or similar?

Stuff 'em. I'm going to become Irish before HMG abolishes the '49 Agreement.