Identity Cards

Dee how could an abusive partner find you if you had an ID card? Maybe I am living in the bubble but I can't see the connection.

Why is a problem in UK when everywhere else manages it without any issue? Are Brits more paranoid?

I reiterate that if the private information is in the chip and those who need to know have appropriate card readers how could there be a problem.

I also think that this information will not be lost on a mislaid laptop, it will be held on a server and encrypted.

It does have a whiff of 1984 big brother about it I admit. I just don't trust the powers that be, to hold the information securely. Worse still I think they'd sell it. They say it would have limited information on it but I don't believe it. I know they already hold masses of information about us and could if need be access it. I know I'm a cynic but I just don't trust the any government enough.

durhamjen your bus pass photo sounds like the one on my passport

Dee I fail to see how anyone could trace me just because I have an ID card. The information is held by the government and is exactly the same as having a passport.

Snap J52. We did the same, and DH, myself and two teenagers were taken into an office and questioned. It was very obvious that smiling or any lightheartedness was not an option. Some countries are more security conscious than others. I have no objections to carrying ID.

Hmm - think this is a can of worms.

I have less trust today in those involved with public service - especially politicians - who have allowed the sale of data to private companies for sales and marking purposes.

In the UK, we seem to be monitored as much by cctv as the 'Stasi' did in East Germany - and has it been any more successful in preventing crime - I don't know.

Will the use of ID cards show occupations? Is it likely that this could be used to be used to restrict movements when events - say an olympic style event is taking place.

Currently, we have the "right to be forgotten" under EU laws, and the right to a private life, and I guess that will change in a couple of years.

We already have multiple IDs in different organisations, from the NHS, to Libraries and workplaces - and they say the EU is filled with bureaucracy.

The information is held by the government

Do you really trust them Bellasnana

These include the same people who leave MOD databases with peoples names and addresses on them on the seats of trains.

Data breaches and loss is a major source of security risk for our Government, and most of the ICT services they use are provided by private companies. And, not all of the private companies' staffs will be vetted to the highest level for the work they do.

I do find it a worry

The consultants Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) produce annual reports on security breaches, these are a couple of their key findings from 2015:

a) The number of security breaches has increased, the scale and cost has nearly doubled. Eleven percent of respondents changed the nature of their business as a result of their worst breach.

b) Despite the increase in staff awareness training, people are as likely to cause a breach as viruses and other types of malicious software.

The UK Government outsources the majority of its work to private companies, whether it's the Met Office, Land Registry or ONS.

Who would get the contract for designing, building and supporting the ID Card database systems I wonder - Microsoft? Huawei? Apple? Verizon?

This is the PwC summary report:
www.pwc.co.uk/assets/pdf/2015-isbs-executive-summary-digital.pdf

Like Nonnie, I do not see, Dee, how abusive partners would be able to track down spouses via the ID card, nor why this would be a problem in witness protection. Surely in the latter case, people would be given a new identity and thus new IDs.

As has been said, ID cards have existed for at least a couple of generations in other countries with no indication that runaway spouses, protected witnesses, etc. have been traced by those they wish to hide from. Do they not still keep driving licenses, NHS numbers and cards, etc. If they are not traceable via these, then why should ID cards make them more so??

In answer to those who have mentioned it, religion is not on the ID card, unless your title is Rev.

Please also remember that persecuted minorities like the Jews in Nazi-occupied Germany had to do with prejudice, hate and the systematic policy to annihilate a people, not ID cards. Jews were made to register
with the police, made to wear a gold star to be identified and herded into ghettos.

I find it upsetting that a link can be made by anyone between these events and current proposals re ID cards and speak, not as someone who in lives in a bubble, but as someone who lost ancestors in that horrible time because of who they were. If anyone can prove that ID cards would lead to such persecution again, then I would be the first to object.

I found my ID card the other day, dating 1956 - I was cute. My current one looks more like my paternal grandmother- I wish it did look like my very beautiful and always elegant mother!

Like others living abroad- it is the norm to have an identity card- the one from 1956 is just card with a photo stapled on it- the current one is credit card style and with an imbedded doodah (will ask OH for the proper word in a mom, lol) to make it more difficult to copy. We cross borders here all the time- sometimes several times a day and it is much easier to carry than a passport (I have 2, British and Swiss- Swiss one has electronic recognition and finger prints too).

Hi Shysal I also have ice on my phone and all the paramedics need to know about me but it can still be accessed even if the phone is locked its always on the front where it can be seen maybe it worth checking your settings

No . personally I see absolutely no problem with an ID card ..living in Spain I had a Residencia complete with finger prints ..never bothered me and saved me carrying my passport. Now in France I had to buy a bigger purse to accommodate all the cards Carte de Sejour complet with number proving I am a tax resident here ......Diabetic card with all my details on it electronically ....card from the UCH so that if I am involved in an accident, etc the card will instantly tell the hospital who I am, all the medications I am on, etc etc ..../carte Vital, the French health service card proving you are entitled to use the French health service..also having my entitlement to health care proof electronically scanned ,,,,EHIC which we also have to have ....card from the top up insurance company for health care.

I am (probably my driving !) also stopped on a regular basis by the Gendarmerie doing patrols on the streets ,,,and have to produce all the documents relating to the car and my permis de conduire (driving licence ) with my (terrible) photo on it.

I have NO problem with all of this at all ,,my only problem is these documents can all be faked by very clever people ,,,as in the case of some terrorists who have got into other countries on fake ID ...maybe a chip would be a good idea ! I am all for anything that at least could go a long way to giving someone a feeling of security !

hologram lol

What's the point?

People have pointed out that we already have ID such as bank cards, driving licences, passports, etc, so why do we need something else? Just seems another way for the government to keep tabs on all of us....

I don't believe that ID cards would create an authoritarian state but it would certainly help the other way round - an authoritarian state would find it a very useful tool for victimising certain communities, as with the Nazis and the Jews, or the notorious "pass" laws in apartheid South Africa. It may seem far-fetched, but politics can bring about very rapid social change. Who would have thought, a year ago, that we would be on our way out of the EU (and maybe destabilising the idea of a united Europe in the process) or that the US would go from an intelligent, reasonable President to a racist rabble-rouser?

Seems to me that the government knows a hell of a lot about us already. I don't see any need for yet another way of monitoring us.

Although I would fully support ID cards they will probably never happen as our civil service would have to appoint highly expensive management consultants, introduce an unmanageable IT system and the whole exercise would get out of hand and abandoned. Cynical moi?

It's already easy enough, from the information available, for people to be tracked down, ID cards wouldn't make any difference.
I know people who do it for a living.

Lona, what a shadowy world you inhabit...!

I used to be a gangster's moll Ana! ?

Why do people worry about carrying an I.D that will hold minimal information, when they are more than happy to put every thought and movement on fakebook, GN etc ?

I get cross whenever my family is asked to prove our ID. My DH has a old paper Driving Licence, but DS and I have never learned to drive, DH and I have out-of-date passports, and DS hasn't ever been abroad, so nothing official between us to prove that we are actually us!

Being Very Old I still have tucked away in the archives my Identity Card from WW2. And I can still remember my National Identity Number.

I don't want to be chipped ! If your chip wears out I suppose you would have to be put down just like an old pet dog. the more info on an individual the greater choice for hacking. Personally I can just about remember to take my keys when I go out and have to check several times to make sure I have the right cards, password etc. No more stuff I know I exist. ..... I think..

But how handy to be chipped! You could find DH when he goes walkabout in Sainsbury's. Or when he shouts upstairs wanting to know where you are he could just check his smart phone. You could even use it yourself when you get that "Where am I? What am I doing here?" moment

Would it tell you why you went upstairs/into the living room/kitchen when you can't remember? If so, I'm all for it!

This must be my week for straight speaking as I have to say I find your post silly skeet ...I'm sure you have plenty of ways of proving your identity if it matters.