White Rose is a protest blog collective focusing on civil liberties in the UK.
It was set up to point a finger at the erosion of personal freedom in the UK.
Government's active measures introduce new means of control such as identity cards and surveillance cameras, the passive measures such as weakening of double jeopardy and presumption of innocence.


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Gabriel Syme and Perry de Havilland of Samizdata.net to rally the Anglosphere behind the UK.
White Rose contributors are those bloggers and non-bloggers who oppose restrictions on personal liberties.

To find out how to become a White Rose contributor, please go here.
Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Home Office Admits All ID Card Data to be Tracked
Trevor Mendham (The Chestnut Tree Cafe)
(1)   Identity cards

The Home Office has tried to assure us that David "Big" Blunkett's plan to impose compulsory National Identity Cards on innocent British citizens is not a threat to privacy. Yesterday that argument was finally blown out of the water.

The Guardian reports that ID Card usage will be tracked centrally. Stephen Harrison, the head of the Home Office's identity card policy unit, admitted yesterday that the Government is "minded" to log every single ID Card usage and store the data centrally.

As ID Cards become used for more and more things, this data shadow will become larger and larger. Every time you use your ID Card for any purpose this information will be recorded. All available in a central government database at the touch of a button.

Of course, Harrison assures us that the data is only being collected to guard against abuse and that there will be "safeguards" to protect it. Some of us have heard such words before and don't find them very reassuring.

Harrison's admission yesterday confirms that compulsory ID Cards will effectively mean the end of privacy in the UK.

Cross-posted from The Chestnut Tree Cafe


Comments

We agree with most of your views because we understand that stealing freedoms leads to higher crime.However,the removal of Double Jeopardy protection has nothing to do with lost freedom- quite the reverse. The Society for Action Against Crime has hopefully persuaded many politicians of the injustice of a law which enables murderers and rapists etc to escape punishment simply because better evidence of their guilt was not available at the time of their one and only trial. How would you feel if someone found not guilty of murdering a loved one later was proven by irrefutable evidence to actually be GUILTY?

Posted by: crimedown.org on April 20, 2004 11:53 AM
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