[Gllug] re: USA / civil liberties etc

[t.clarke]

On the subject of civil liberties/USA and all that, below is an interesting
email I received re ID cards !!

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 What ID Cards really do

 You may have heard that legislation creating compulsory ID Cards passed a
 crucial stage in the House of Commons. You may feel that ID cards are not
 something to worry about, since we already have Photo ID for our Passport
 and Driving Licence and an ID Card will be no different to that. If you
 have nothing to hide, why should you care.

 What you have not been told is the full scope of this proposed ID Card,
 and what it will mean to you personally.

 The proposed ID Card will be different from any card you now hold. It will
 be connected to a database called the NIR, (National Identity Register)
 where all of your personal details will be stored. This will include the
 unique number that will be issued to you, your fingerprints, a scan of the
 back of your eye, and your photograph. Your name, address and date of
 birth will also obviously be stored there.
 There will be spaces on his database for your religion, residence status,
 and many other private and personal facts about you. There is unlimited
 space for every other detail of your life on the NIR database, which can
 be expanded by the government with or without further Acts of Parliament.

 By itself, you might think that this register is harmless, but you would
 be wrong to come to this conclusion. this new card will be used to check
 your identity against your entry in the register in real time, whenever
 you present it to 'prove who you are'. Every place that sells alcohol or
 cigarettes, every post office, every pharmacy, and every Bank will have an
 NIR Card Terminal, (very much like the Chip and Pin Readers that are
 everywhere now) into which your card can be 'swiped' to check your
 identity.
 Each time this happens, a record is made at the NIR of the time and place
 that the Card was presented. This means for example, that there will be a
 government record of every time you withdraw more than 99 at your branch
 of Nat West, (who will soon demand ID for these transactions) .
 Every time you have to prove that you are over 18, your card will be
 swiped, and a record made at the NIR. Restaurants and off licences will
 demand that your card is swiped so that each receipt shows that they sold
 alcohol to someone over 18, and that this was proved by the access to the
 NIR, indemnifying them from prosecution.

 Private businesses are going to be given access to the NIR Database. If
 you want to apply for a job, you will have to present your card for swipe.
 If you want to apply for a London Underground Oyster Card, or a
 supermarket loyalty card, or a driving licence you will have to present
 your ID Card for a swipe. The same goes for getting a telephone line or a
 mobile phone or an internet account. Oyster, DVLA, BT and Nectar (for
 example) all run very detailed databases of their own. They will be
 allowed access to the NIR, just as every other business will be.
 This means that each of these entities will be able to store your unique
 number in their database, and place all your travel, phone records,
 driving activities and detailed shopping habits under your unique NIR
 number.

 These databases, which can easily fit on a storage device the size of your
 hand, will be sold to third parties either legally or illegally. It will
 then be possible for a non governmental entity to create a detailed
 dossier of all your activities.
 Certainly, the government will have clandestine access to all of them,
 meaning that they will have a complete record of all your movements, from
 how much and when you withdraw from your bank account to what medications
 you are taking, down to the level of what sort of bread you eat - all
 accessible via a single unique number in a central database.

 This is quite a significant leap from a simple ID Card that shows your
 name and face. Most people do not know that this is the true character and
 scope of the proposed ID Card. Whenever the details of how it will work
 are explained to them, they quickly change from being ambivalent towards
 it.

 The Government is going to compel you to enter your details into the NIR
 and to carry this card.
 If you and our children want to obtain or renew your passports, you will
 be forced to have your fingerprints taken and our eyes scanned for the
 NIR, and an ID Card will be issued to you whether you want one or not
 (and you will have to pay for it) .

 I f you refuse to be fingerprinted and eye scanned, you will not be able
 to get a passport. Your ID Card will, just like your passport, not be your
 property. The Home Secretary will have the right to revoke or suspend your
 ID at any time, meaning that you will not be able to withdraw money from
 your Bank Account, for example, or do anything that requires you to
 present your government issued ID Card.

 The arguments that have been put forward in favor of ID Cards can be
 easily disproved.

 ID Cards will not top terrorists; every Spaniard has a compulsory ID Card
 as did the Madrid Bombers.

 ID Cards will not 'eliminate benefit fraud', which in any case, is small
 compared to the astronomical cost of this proposal, which will be measured
 in billions according to the LSE.
 This scheme exists solely to exert total surveillance and control over the
 ordinary free British Citizen, and it will line the pockets of the
 companies that will create the computer systems at the expense of your
 freedom, privacy and money.

 If you did not know the full scope of the proposed ID Card Scheme before
 and you are as unsettled as I am at what it really means to you, to this
 country and its way of life, I urge you to email or photocopy this and
 give it to your friends and colleagues. The Bill has proceeded to this
 stage due to the lack of accurate and complete information on this
 proposal being made public. Hand to hand, we can inform the entire nation
 if everyone who receives this passes it on.

 Please make sure you do this.

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