31 May, 2005
Don't even consider it
NØ2IDFrom The Register:
The UK government plans to issue its ID card as a passport with biometric identifiers stored in a chip – and the US wants those chips to be compatible with its own scanners, raising the possibility that US agencies could have access to the ID Card database.
I seriously hope this is a baseless scare-story, but it's all too credible.
El Reg proceeds to 'quote' the UKPS:
As part of this process, the UKPS "will progress its major anti-fraud and secure identity initiatives including the addition of a biometric to the British passport. So if a biometric passport is linked to the ID Card in a common format which is compatible with the USA's travel requirement, then direct USA access to the ID Card/Passport database becomes an option in relation to travel to the USA."
In the interests of fairness, I'll point out that that is punctuated wrongly, and the UKPS
statement actually ends at
"... biometric to the British passport." The sentence beginning
"So if a..." is the El Reg author's own, not an official quote. It's still thought-provoking, though.
I'm extremely unhappy about the UK government having access to my personal details, but that some foreign regime might gain access too is far beyond unacceptable.
Posted by Ministry at 16:15
| 214 words
