NO2ID: Leak shows ID cards mark "a secret revolution"
Thursday, 13, Oct 2005 12:00
On the eve of what could be a final Commons vote on the Identity Cards Bill, Government strategy documents deliberately leaked to The Guardian shows that it intends to use ID cards as the basis of a transformation of the relationship between individuals and institutions with central government, with personal data farmed out for official use.
Phil Booth, NO2ID's national coordinator, said:
"We told you so. This shows the extent of ambition in the deceptively-named 'Identity Cards' scheme. Whitehall wants to abolish privacy - not only to observe and control every individual's relationship with any public sector organisation, but every personal and commercial relationship too. With no public awareness or backing, and with no safeguards it is a recipe for totalitarian levels of control - cyber-Stalinism."
The proposals say, "The opportunity from information sharing will be
clarified and rolled out, balancing the potential value to the customer or
taxpayer with privacy concerns." Campaigners say this is code for abolition of personal privacy as we know it. NO2ID (2) is calling for consultation to start again from the beginning, with all civil society and business groups given a fair hearing.
Matthew Taylor MP, Parliamentary spokesman for NO2ID, said:
"This potential invasion into personal and commercial privacy has just not
been discussed. We've had the public and MPs fed endless spin about
immigration, crime and terrorism, only for a much bigger agenda to emerge at the last minute.
"To admit this vast potential for intruding into private personal
information now shows the whole elaborate consultation and marketing
exercise; the Bill's presentation to Parliament has evaded the real risks
from the ID card system. Who apart from the control freaks in the Cabinet
Office, and the consultants eating through limitless sums of public money,
wants this intrusion into our everyday lives? The Government may try to
claim a mandate from one vague sentence in its manifesto, but nobody voted
for this. It is the most astonishing power-grab since Henry VIII."