Christian Message Boards: National ID Cards Approved in Britain

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Posted by David (Member # 1) on :

National ID Cards Approved in Britain

A parliamentary committee has given the British government approval to start issuing national identity cards.
The Home Office wants to introduce high-tech ID cards holding biometric data such as electronic fingerprints or iris scans to help tackle terrorism.

The House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee said in a report published Friday it accepts that ID cards will help in the struggle against illegal activities.

But the panel of lawmakers said it was "extremely concerned" about plans to give Britain's intelligence agencies (MI5 and MI6) what it called "nearly unfettered access" to a planned national identity database.

The government plans to introduce the cards on a voluntary basis in 2007. A decision about whether to make them compulsory is expected about five years later.

From:
http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=2A06E67A-E62A-4B16-A35BE2A064887617&title=National%20ID%20Cards%20Approved%20in%20Br

Posted by SciptureAndPrayers (Member # 3633) on :

I suspect that they'll become compulsory.

It's not hard to envision the same thing happening in the U.S.A. with organizations like FEMA and Homeland Security being given cart blanche already "for the sake of national security".

Before you know it, it'll be biochips in our right hand or forehead. We already have tracking devices in our cars and cell phones.

[crying]

Posted by Favor Minded (Member # 3636) on :

July 29, 2004

CNET News.com reports: “VeriChip, the company that makes radio frequency identification--RFID--tags for humans, has moved one step closer to getting its technology into hospitals.

The Federal Drug Administration issued a ruling Tuesday that essentially begins a final review process that will determine whether hospitals can use RFID systems from the Palm Beach, Fla.-based company to identify patients and/or permit relevant hospital staff to access medical records, said Angela Fulcher, vice president of marketing and sales at VeriChip.

VeriChip sells 11-millimeter RFID tags that get implanted in the fatty tissue below the right tricep. When near one of Verichip's scanners, the chip wakes up and radios an ID number to the scanner. If the number matches an ID number in a database, a person with the chip under his or her skin can enter a secured room or complete a financial transaction.

‘It is used instead of other biometric applications,’ such as fingerprints, Fulcher said.

The approval process does not center on health risks or implications, Fulcher said. VeriChip can already sell implantable RFID chips in the United States for standard security applications and the financial market. The company's basic technology has also been used in animals for years.

Instead, the FDA may mostly examine privacy issues, Fulcher indicated. In other words, the agency will look at whether the technology will lead to situations where confidential information can get improperly disclosed…”

[1zhelp]

Posted by Favor Minded (Member # 3636) on :

British police will almost certainly be given access in the near future to US intelligence databases containing DNA samples, fingerprints and digital images of thousands of foreign nationals seized around the world by the US as terror suspects.

As the war on terror increasingly comes to rely on biometric technology - the use of physical characteristics unique to individuals such as iris pattern, DNA and fingerprints to verify identify - western police and intelligence agencies are drawing up plans for sophisticated biometric databases which would allow them to share sensitive information.

‘The only way to trace a terrorist is through biometrics,’ Mike Kirkpatrick, assistant director of the FBI's criminal justice services division, told a conference for European firms selling biometric security measures yesterday. ‘[Traditional] passports are pretty damn meaningless.’

The FBI, which has more than 75m fingerprints on its criminal and civil computer records, is adding biometric details from suspects detained in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere…

Last night, civil liberties campaigners voiced concerns about governments sharing biometric data through international databases. ‘There is now a total obsession with this technology as a way of combating anything and everything and it's a fallacy,’ said Barry Hugill of Liberty. ‘Once you begin to compile massive databases it's a matter of common sense that you are going to get the most horrendous mix-ups, with the wrong people being accused and the wrong information being shared around the world.’

British law enforcement and intelligence agencies believe that access to the US databases will streamline international cooperation between police forces and make it much harder for terror suspects known to one country to enter another. The data would be used mainly to vet people traveling to the UK, either at the point where they apply for visas or when they reach a British airport or port…”
[1zhelp]