ID card design unveiled

August 1, 2009

If anyone seriously believed that the recent announcement that ID cards were to be voluntary for UK residents somehow meant that the scheme had been shelved, hopefully this will alert them to the reality of the situation. The centralised database is not going to disappear like the dew on a summer’s morn. It may have been backgrounded for the moment, but it is quite definitely not going away any time soon.

And let’s not forget that any trans people without a Gender Recognition Certificate who wish to apply for an ID card will, in fact, be required to pay for two of them; one in their birth gender and one in their acquired gender. A “buy two, get two” offer you can easily refuse, I’d say.

Via BBC News:

ID card (image from BBC News)

  1. Symbol meaning a chip is embedded in the card
  2. ID card number
  3. Citizenship. Foreign nationals in the UK are being given different cards
  4. Place of birth
  5. Signature – digitally embedded in the card
  6. Date of card issue and date it becomes invalid
  7. Photo taken to biometric standards
  8. Biometric chip holds fingerprint record
  9. Swipe zone. Information which can be automatically read by computer

Home Secretary Alan Johnson has unveiled the final design of the controversial national identity card.

The card will be offered to members of the public in the Greater Manchester area from the end of this year.

[…]

The card is very similar in look to a UK driving licence but holds more data, including two fingerprints and a photograph encoded on a chip.

This chip and its unique number in turn links the card to a national identity register which, under current legislation, could hold more information about the identity of the individual.

Announcing a counter-campaign across North-West England, NO2ID’s Dave Page said:

“Once you are on that database, you can never come off it.”

“From the moment you’re registered you’ll have to tell the authorities of any change in your circumstances for the rest of your life – and pay whatever fees they ask for the ‘service’.”

“You’ll never know who’s looking at your details. It won’t protect our safety. It won’t be convenient – except for Whitehall. This scheme is an expensive and dangerous con.”

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Curtsey to the Pet Shop Boys for the heads up

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This entry was posted on August 1, 2009 at 10:09 pm and is filed under ID cards.