The information to be stored on the ID card database

With the recent news about the loss of our information through bungling in government, I thought it would be timely to remind you of the information to be stored on the National Register (the database behind the identity cards):

• every address you’ve ever lived at;
• every name you’ve ever been known by;
• every immigration status you’ve ever held;
• your fingerprints;
• the number of every official identity document issued to you, such as driving licences, passports, visas, etc;
• you have to notify them on pain of a financial penalty about any changes to the above; and,
• a record of every occasion on which your identity is checked, and who/what it was checked by, and thus a record of, for example, each time you visit a doctor/clinic, obtain state benefits, or indeed access any public services to which you have to prove entitlement, enroll your kids in a state school, open a bank account, apply for a credit card or take out a mortgage, perhaps even use your bank account, etc.

Then there is the ‘meta-database’ – that is, your identity number could be used to cross-reference with every database on which there is a record relating to you.

So don’t be fooled into thinking it is a simple means of verifying your identity.

It is much more than that – it is a system for control over, and total auditing of, all such aspects of normal, law-abiding life.

Try to imagine for example what would happen if someone abused their access to the system – perhaps you are a battered wife in hiding, and someone is persuaded to find you – or if there was a system foul-up, and you were as a result denied access to your doctor.

Try to think then whether or not you really have something to fear, even though you might not have anything to hide.

Try to think about whether you want to live in such a country – whether we are still entitled to call it a free country.

(with thanks to James Hammerton)

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