British Passport Renewal; you have 18 months

[matgb]

Right, background here (me) and here (paulatpingu on nolittleengland. Short version, the House of Lords has accepted a "compromise" wherein ID cards won't be compulsory until 2010 (ie after the next Election) but being on the NIR will be from as soon as it's set up (sometime in 2008).

This is apparently a good one for civil liberties campaigners as it gives us another election before the cards are compulsory. Problem.

It's not the cards that we object to

It's the National Identity Register. I do not want to live in a database state, where some "unhackable" database (the Titanic was "unsinkable", remember?) has record of my biometric information and essential identiy details.

However, the Home Office confirms you can renew your passport at any time for any reason.

I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.

I am not a number, I am a free man.

National Identity Register? £2,500 fine for failing to keep your details up to date?

Say No2ID.

Yes, I'm at work, yes I'm swamped. Regardless, I'm angry and scared about this one.

Comments

[karis-uk.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I agree with you wholeheartedly. This whole thing is really quite terrifying.

[matgb]

The best bit is that Leg/Reg will allow ministers to amend the ID legislation at will, they specifically blocked the amendment that would stop that.

That's scary. 3 years minimum until the General Election unless Brown pulls a fast one, which NuLab can't afford. We're in trouble either way.

Join the revolution comrade?

[karis-uk.livejournal.com]

Yep, I'm with you all the way on this one. This is absolutely NOT the world that I want to live in :-(

[srk1.livejournal.com]

he compromise is even worse than the original bill, because it (initially) delinks the database from the card, and so makes it harder to argue against. "What are you complaining about? You don't have to get a card (For two years!)" will be the disingenous government line from now. The only 'compromise' anyone with principles in the Lords ought to have accepted was Andy Burnham's head on a stick.

ID cards are turning me into Citizen Smith. I'm finding myself saying things like "if parliament won't stop ID cards, then the people will have to do it" and actually meaning it.

[matgb]

That's effectively what Liberty Central is going to be about; a new Glorious Revolution.

And I'm making Wolfie references constantly. Really must get around to reading the Power report as well, it's sat next to me on the floor awaiting review.

[mapp.livejournal.com]

The "unhackable database" thing really is of some concern to me. Sure, the database can be made very difficult to hack in to, but how many people are going to be able to input data into it?

Let's say there are only five hundred people able to put data into this database. It only takes one person to slip up - they use the same log in information for another service, they accidentally reveal their password to somebody, what-have-you - and then the whole system gets compromised. Worse still, because everyone will believe that the system is "unhackable" (which I assume means "you're not going to be able to brute force your way in"), how many people are going to be trawling through the database trying to find errors?

The whole ID cards and database thing scares the crap out of me. I don't care how secure they make the database, the fact is that a lot of people are going to be trying to get into it, and eventually the human element is going to slip up, almost certainly before the mechanical element does.

[matgb]

That's a principle concern; every time they say "unhackable", an extra little skript kiddee makes it his lifes ambition to break in.

Let alone the E-European crime sydicate techie types, etc.

[mapp.livejournal.com]

I think you missed the point. I have no doubt that, on a technical level, the database will be secure. The Enigma code doodad used by the Germans was, on a technical level, rather secure, but it was broken because of the human element (operators getting lazy). I can but hope that they make it skript-kiddee-proof, but I reckon that social engineering shall prove its downfall.

[fearmeforiampink]

It's the crime types that worry me the most.

You have 500 or however many people working on this. How can you be sure that one of them won't be contacted, bribed, and suddenly the system ain't secure no more.

... I need to hunt down my Passport to see when it expires.

On the bright side, given the timing of things I'll have finished my degree before stuff comes in, so my refusing to go on the database if/when it hits won't cause problems there.

Might cause problems in working, but probably not too much - travelling would be the main problem I'd guess.

[matgb]

Travelling and finding £2500 on a regular basis; have a look at the list of things they'll find you for (I just posted them here).

That's is scary.

[(Anonymous)]

Is there a local no2id group?

Lordhutton@hotmail.com