Think the ID card's gone away? Think again

Dominique Lazanski is an experienced digital consultant and a regular writer and commentator on Internet policy and regulation from a free market perspective. She has over 10 years of experience in Silicon Valley with spells at Yahoo! and Apple and has spent the last several years in London as a consultant to the music industry and media agencies.

I have been a resident of the UK since 2005, having emigrated here from the USA – my home country.  At first I was a graduate student, then -according to the Home Office - a highly-skilled migrant worker.  Recently I married a UK citizen and I had to renew my visa for the fourth time in 4 years.  This time, the situation is different.  No longer do I have a ‘vignette’ sticker in my passport. Instead, I have been compelled to have a UK ID card which holds my biometrics and visa.  I have to carry both my passport and my ID when I travel in and out of the country.

This compulsion is due to changes to the UK Borders Act of 2007 ‘updating’ the original act.  In 2009 a provision was added allowing the Secretary of State to demand an immigrant’s biometrics.  From the convoluted and obtuse language contained in the updated text, it appears that if the Secretary of State requests a record of biometrics from an immigrant, say me, when I am at a random location, say an airport, then I need to give it to him.  How do I give him a record of my biometrics? – by handing over my ID card.

The law states (though not clearly) that:

(6) Regulations under subsection (1)(b) may, in particular, require the production or other use of a biometric immigration document that is combined with another document; and section 16 of the Identity Cards Act 2006 (c. 15) (prohibition of requirement to produce ID card) is subject to this subsection.

Roughly translated: the Government seems to think that this means it's now OK to force ID cards on immigrants. This is troubling on so many levels, but there are two points in particular here.  First, since the ID card is required for all non-EU immigrants, then it is a very small step to mandate them for all citizens and residents of the UK.  Secondly, and more importantly, the revision of the UK Borders Act of 2007 provides for the Secretary of State to have more power to mandate laws directly, thereby bypassing the need for legislation to be passed by Parliament.  We have already seen such power introduced in the Digital Economy Bill, but we are now experiencing that power through this backhanded introduction of compulsory ID Cards.  These ever-increasing powers of the Secretary of State are far more dangerous and more widespread than we could ever have imagined.  Perhaps the Secretary of State will be our real ‘big brother’!

Related link: previous post from this guest author

Comments

[Victor Cardiss]

So let's just think this one through for a moment.... The same ID card,
designed by the same company (Digital Solutions in Florida who use a different name for each country),
fully compatible with each country's own equipment, (supplied by guess who?)
containing personal and biometric data that is being held on one single worldwide database belonging to a private American business...
Yet we still refer to it as the NATIONAL ID card.
THIS IS A GLOBAL ID SYSTEM!
But not to worry... the Head of Digital Solutions has already admitted that the ID card will fail. However, by the time it does you'll need it for evrything from getting on a station platform, entering a Post Office, claiming benefits (they're next) and much more. It'll become your ID, cashcard, driving license, car key, internet key, office key, etc.
When it fails because too many people have lost one, had it stolen, or left it in their pants before the washer destroyed it, or missed their train because they've swiped it ten times and the damn thing still won't let you on the platform!
When all this happens and the people are going bonkers with their government ministers about replacement costs etc.
That's when our government will reveal their tried and tested foolproof solution.... It's worked for years on peadophiles, alzheimers patients and livestock... now a new version that holds 100,000 times more data and is active so you can be tracked to within 1 centimetre... Yep! get ready for the PERSONAL MICROCHIP!

[NeverSurrender]

Victor did you ever watch the TV series The Last Enemy? It was a chilling insight into the direction the UK is heading and your last suggestion was heavily featured. Scarily it is oh so close to reality.

[zorro]

They're not taking DNA and fingerprints have been taken from asylum seekers in the UK since 1993.

They've also been taking fingerprints and photographs from visitors/foreign nationals to the USA for years. I remember waiting in a queue for an hour or two on a trip to Washington in 2004 to await that honour....So Dominique your good old compatriots have been doing it for years. Have a nice day!

But seriously, I'm against the big brother state. My only concession has been to sign up to IRIS as I do not intend leaving my eye print at any crime scene...;-)...I can live with that.

The ID card is a red herring. As long as they have your fingerprints and hopefully your DNA on the National Identity Register they don't really give a toss..... They have no intention of paying (neither does business) for the ID scanners which would be necessary to make this system work.

'Transformational government' is the project...ho hum

[Paul]

Given there are about 200million border movements per year and the issues faceed with immigration, this seems a fair policy to me.

Certainly in my town there I have seen Lantern deployed effectively when suspected law breakers will not give their identity or refuse to talk English.

Dominique just has to accept this is the price of living here.

[Stickler]

Surely the real issue here which should concern anyone with a modicum of interest in genuine freedom and privacy, is the manner in which those whom we supposedly elected to look after our interests continue to blatantly do whatever takes their fancy while ignoring public opinion ? On the one hand we are repeatedly told by official government spokespersons that the ID card will never be compulsory, and then we are told that in order to obtain a passport after the end of next year the presentation of an ID card will be a pre-requisite to issue of the passport ! Semantics and spin do not hide the reality here... we are constantly lied to by unscrupulous politicians, and if we do not stand up to them as they ignore the true tenets of a democratic society, we will have no reason to complain if one day we find ourselves in a rather different environment in which our fundamental freedoms are seriously undermined.