Telegraph-YouGov poll on ID cards and the surveillance society

The Daily Telegraph and YouGov recently polled the public on ID cards and the surveillance society.

Despite a large drop in support from 78% in favour in 2003, to 50% today, the majority still appear to support ID cards but a significant minority (39%) remain opposed.

I find it interesting that the majority don’t believe the authorities can be trusted with the information in the National Register, and that they are unhappy with having their details recorded, and that the state holds too much information about us – but remain in favour of a system of identity cards.

Also interesting is that a large majority of people appear to approve of CCTV, but approval of other aspects of a ‘surveillance society’ drops the more ‘intrusive’ they are – for example, using identity cards to track our movements.

Some earlier ID card polls can be found on Polling Report, an excellent resource for polls in general.

fingerprint mania

Magna Carta Plus has an article on the fingerprint mania that seems to have the authorities in its grip.