[Gllug] NHS opt out

Mike Brodbelt mike at coruscant.demon.co.uk
Wed Jan 24 23:31:07 UTC 2007


Nix wrote:
> On 23 Jan 2007, Mike Brodbelt said:
>> Possibly, but I personally don't have a problem with ID cards per se. I
>> have a huge problem with the proposed implementation we're getting, but
>> that's a different story. An ID card that has all your personal data on,
>> encrypted, and then digitally signed by the Government could work, as
>> long as you and only you could authorise people to interrogate it, and
> 
> But how would you do that without another form of identification? It
> doesn't solve the authentication problem at all: just makes the
> consequences of a single crooked act (in this case, card theft) more
> catastrophic.

If it was entirely controllable by you, there's no real reason to object
to the owner having to authenticate to the card with a biometric (or
two). That essentially establishes that the person carrying the card is
the person whose data in on the card, and the trusted government digital
signature verifies that the signed data the card holder has released to
you has been verified (and ties it to the card ID). You cold also have
the card store data signed by different authorities, so when you went to
the doctor, you could have them update your medical record on the
device, and sign that with an NHS key. As the device owner, with the
root update authority, you could of course back up all the signed data
it contained, so in the event of loss all you'd need would be to take
the backup to the card issuing authority, and prove who you were so you
could get it placed on a new card that would be re-coded to your biometrics.

They'll never do it of course, because placing citizens in control of
their identity isn't what they're after - they want the whole big
brother database. It's about control, not identity, or security, or any
of the other excuses blandished about.

Mike

Mike

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