Compulsory Biometric ID Cards

[brokencross]

Jacqui Smith (Home Secretary) says public demand means people will be able to pre-register for an ID card within the next few months.

The cards will be available for all from 2012 but she said: "I regularly have people coming up to me and saying they don't want to wait that long."

Full Article http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7712275.stm

At first it is voluntary but if re-elected the Government says it will introduce legislation to make it compulsory for people over 16.

In view of the rising costs, routine loss of existing personal details, Big Brother scenario and all other factors; I would value Orgers opinions on the proposed introduction of compulsory biometric ID cards.

I am not in favour.

[Boozeburglar]

This is one of the reasons I am seriously thinking about leaving this place again.

[Kodiak]

I will be the very last person to get an ID Card. They will have to drag me screaming and force me to apply and then I will refuse to pay for it.

The whole idea of BioMetric ID Cards is a complete and utter Violation of your personal rights. The goverment stance of that if you have done nothing wrong then you have nothing to fear is a load of Hogwash. As is also their claim that it will reduce the threat of terrorism, Hogwash to that as well.

By the time BioMetric ID Cards are introduced then two days later there will be a black market set up and copies and fake BioMetric will be easily Available.

I do Not like the whole Idea of BioMetric ID Cards and I never will, nor will I ever volunteer for one or apply for one let alone pay for it.

[Angela]

I used to like the idea of a basic ID card which would make my life simpler -no need to produce several different kinds of ID to do something as simple as joining the library or the gym!

Somehow the ID you take along with you to join anything is never quite right or sufficient and you have to go home and come back with more. :roll:

A month after I applied to open a Post Office instant saver account -and sent the cheque which they have processed! they have come back to me saying they don't have sufficient ID to open the account. This despite my taking everything to my local PO where they input all the details on the system, before sending off the hard copy of my form plus cheque.

They must think I'm a money launderer! :eek: Would an ID card have solved this problem I wonder?

I've felt less keen on ID cards recently tho', with all the additional personal data that will be stored on these cards and the government's very poor track record when it comes to security and confidentiality.

On the other hand, we're kidding ourselves if we think the powers that be don't already have a vast amount of info about us all one way or another - family, medical, financial, education, employment, driving etc etc -stored on their various different systems. Not to mention all that info that stores such as Tesco accumulate if you have a loyalty card.

So I'd say I'm in two minds about this, but I'm still not in favour of these cards being made compulsory.

[teenybash]

Not in favour of compulsory id cards....smacks more and more of communism and the erosion to live as a 'free' citizen. Agree the governments record on peoples personal data going astray is atrocious and until this is remedied no one should give anymore personal information..[disgust]

[TBH]

What a bloody cheek, forcing ID cards on people then making them pay for it aswell. We will also have to provide fingerprints even though we haven't commited a criminal act, just to get a passport. We seem to be nothing more than cattle to these people.

[golach]

What a bloody cheek, forcing ID cards on people then making them pay for it aswell. We will also have to provide fingerprints even though we haven't commited a criminal act, just to get a passport. We seem to be nothing more than cattle to these people.
Every Coo, gets tagged at birth or shortly after these days TBH, its the law [lol]

[TBH]

Every Coo, gets tagged a birth or shortly after these days TBH, its the law [lol]Well at's it then, am moo'vin til Russia.

[wifie]

I have to say that, like Angela, I thought nothing wrong in having an ID card, seemed sensible infact. Now though with all kinds of information getting lost and left goodness knows where perhaps I am not so keen. I already have several things to identify me that I have had to pay for and do not wish to pay for more. I do not wish to have all ten fingerprints taken - like a criminal. The whole situation sounds horrendous - can you imagine hoards of people queueing up at these "information gathering stations" - sounds very like herding cattle indeed TBH! [disgust]

[Kodiak]

I have to say that, like Angela, I thought nothing wrong in having an ID card, seemed sensible infact. Now though with all kinds of information getting lost and left goodness knows where perhaps I am not so keen. I already have several things to identify me that I have had to pay for and do not wish to pay for more. I do not wish to have all ten fingerprints taken - like a criminal. The whole situation sounds horrendous - can you imagine hoards of people queueing up at these "information gathering stations" - sounds very like herding cattle indeed TBH! [disgust]


Sounds more like 1984 to me with Big Brother watching you.

[TBH]

It's going to be so much worse than 1984 and what's more, it will be because you want it. For christ's sake, she is trying to say that people are practically begging for these measures, where are these people she's talking about.

[2little2late]

If you've nothing to hide why worry?

[TBH]

If you've nothing to hide why worry?Absolute rubbish and the mantra of the brainwashed.

[brokencross]

It's going to be so much worse than 1984 and what's more, it will be because you want it. For christ's sake, she is trying to say that people are practically begging for these measures, where are these people she's talking about.

I agree.

I think it is a spin type ploy; working on the principle that if they say something often enough, the brainwash effect will set in and people will actually start to believe the mantra "ID cards are good, must have one" and hopefully change their minds so as not to be seen as out of step with the perceived, totally ficticious majority.

Not gonna work, once again politicians treat the electorate with contempt.


If you've nothing to hide why worry?

That is exactly along the lines they want you to think.
It is not a case of "nothing to hide", but more a case of "none of their business".

[wifie]

If you've nothing to hide why worry?
I used to think that way!


Absolute rubbish and the mantra of the brainwashed.
True! Who knows who is watching you and why - you could be totally innocent but if they "misplace" your info who knows who might get their hands on it and for what reason!

[Tristan]

If you want all your personal and biometric information in the hands of the UK government, other governments and criminals please vote for the ID cards because that is the future if the government gets its way.
I for one will consider leaving the county to somewhere that still supports human/societal rights! We have sent our troops to war, to die for these freedoms that we hold dear and now the government wants to go against everything we have stood for all these years - What a slap in the face of those soldiers who have fought and died!

[TBH]

I agree.

I think it is a spin type ploy; working on the principle that if they say something often enough, the brainwash effect will set in and people will actually start to believe the mantra "ID cards are good, must have one" and hopefully change their minds so as not to be seen as out of step with the perceived, totally ficticious majority.

Not gonna work, once again politicians treat the electorate with contempt.
Well they will have to stick an ID card in with my maggot infested corpse because I wont be accepting one as long as I'm alive.

[Whitewater]

When this idea was first mentioned a few years ago I didn't feel one way or the other about it. However, there has been a lot of water under the bridge since then and my decision now is No No NoWay. In this age of electronic data collection and storage, the govennment already has more than enough information on every one of us, they could easily issue us all an ID card now if they wanted to without us having to submit any more information of any type to them.

I wouldn't trust them with it, they would leave it on a train (that seems to be the in thing at present) or they would use it for their own wierd and wonderful purposes, or perhaps I should say they would misuse it. Finger prints would be a very dangerous thing to give them, we would probably find somebody knocking on our doors and arresting us for things we know nothing about, as has happenened a couple of years ago with the police woman who was accused of being at the scene of a crime just because a nameless face misread or couldn't read the prints. It would be too much, too intrusive and unnecessary information, which, at the moment they are incapable of handling or storing securely.

It was just a month or two ago that personal information on a person (can't remember where they came from) was found by a TV journalist on a rubbish dump in India. The man had disposed of it as 'Confidential waste' in what he thought was a secure system.

In the past I was in favour of a national DNA pool, I thought that it would have been a wonderful thing for the medical world, a means of identifying donors etc. But I have long since changed my mind. Everything this government does (Torys, Lib dems and Scottish Nationalists included) always has a hidden purpose.

For the reasons given above and many more unstated, I will say no to identity cards.

[Fly]

Under no circumstances will I pay for one of those monstrosities and if the authorities are not happy they can put me in the nick. By that time life won't be worth living anyway the way things are going in this country.[disgust]http://forum.caithness.org/images/icons/icon8.gif

[northener]

I voted yes, not because I believe that this is some amazing card that will 'stop terrorism'*, reduce crime and leap tall buildings with a single bound, but because I think that we are already awash with this information and introducing an ID card merely formalises all the information that is already held on most of us.

Will it be forged by the criminal world? You bet.
Will it be badly administered? Yup.
Will it run massively over-budget? Oh, yes indeedy.
Will vast amounts of confidential personal details be found in skips/on nicked laptops/free with a packet of cornflakes? Indubitably so.
Should we have to pay for it ourselves? NO!

* 'Terrorist' and 'terrorism' are bogeymen words used to frighten people and justify absolutely anything......

[emb123]

The choices don't quite cover my thoughts. I'm all for ID cards, but not biometric ones. I think that is simply too invasive and Orwellian.

ID cards would solve a lot of problems and whilst it is a slight curtailing of our civil liberties, I believe the benefits outweigh the disadvantages, though if pushed to name all the benefits and all the disadvantages I might be a little tongue-tied (for a change, lol).

[TBH]

I voted yes, not because I believe that this is some amazing card that will 'stop terrorism'*, reduce crime and leap tall buildings with a single bound, but because I think that we are already awash with this information and introducing an ID card merely formalises all the information that is already held on most of us.

Will it be forged by the criminal world? You bet.
Will it be badly administered? Yup.
Will it run massively over-budget? Oh, yes indeedy.
Will vast amounts of confidential personal details be found in skips/on nicked laptops/free with a packet of cornflakes? Indubitably so.
Should we have to pay for it ourselves? NO!

* 'Terrorist' and 'terrorism' are bogeymen words used to frighten people and justify absolutely anything......In respect one of the last people I expected to succumb to this bullshit excuse for a police state was you.

[northener]

In respect one of the last people I expected to succumb to this bullshit excuse for a police state was you.

Fair comment, TBH.

I can't decide whether I'm giving up or taking a pragmatic view on this.

My gut reaction to this (ID cards, not you!) would get my post pulled mucho pronto...but part of me does see a reasonable point to this excersise - bearing in mind that most of the information required is already held on driving licences, passports, credit cards, online shopping/login siteas and even the big retailers.

I'm no great fan of the System...it is by it's very nature controlled by the sort of people who I wouldn't urinate on. But on this one maybe, just maybe, they have a reasonably valid point this time.

Anyway, £10 says regardless of what happens in the next couple of years on this issue - within 20 years we'll all have them anyway.

Big Brother? He's been watching us for years.

[brokencross]

I cannot see the point of an expensive voluntary Biometric ID Card. Does that make you more honest and trustworthy than someone who chooses not to get one? NO, of course not.

AND

If/when it does become compulsory to HAVE the Biometric ID Card, for it to be fully effective it would also have to be compulsory to CARRY the card at all times.

Would that then lead to random stops for card checks? Probably

Who will be able to demand to see the ID card? Councils already abuse anti-terror laws to carry out covert surveillance for "domestic" reasons.

What would be the offence? Walking in a free country without a licence!!

What would happen if you didn't have it with you...........
.......would you have to produce it at a police station within 24 hours.....Oh yeah Tommy the Terrorist is going to do that.
.......Would the policeman walk you home to get it to check you are who you say you are.....
.......Or take you to the police station and waste more police time.

Next step will be a CHIP and PIN inserted under the skin at birth.

[hotrod4]

Cant see any reason not to have an ID card. Nothing wrong with it,especially if it helps in the fight against terrorism and stop unwanted illegals living here.
Will help against the sale of products to underage people as well.
Its only a piece of plastic after all![lol]

[Valerie Campbell]

I'd be happy enough with a simple id card but am against a biometric one. The government's already lost my data and I wouldn't trust them with this information as far as I could throw them.