Previous Message

i was in a room with the ODPM discussing the basics behind ID cards. the people in that room did not understand the difference between authentication and authorisation. that, alone, is enough to have me on the side of those who think the government should have nothing to do with this at all.

currently, at a base level, we already have multiple IDs - we have a passport number, a driver's licence, an NHS number, an NI number... and yet if you try to do something like open a bank account or get a mortgage none of this ties together in a coherent way.

as it stands, all we'll have is yet another card with yet another ID that we'll have to pay for that doesn't help us at all. if it, say, could be used to expedite new banking accounts, mortgage applications, identity checks, and access to local services (libraries, doctors, dentists etc) then sure, that sounds useful. but if someone's paying undocumented workers in cash, a lack of an ID card won't do anything to stop that, and unless you're going to refuse NHS treatment without a card and potentially kill people then that's never going to happen either.

until they actually explain how it'll solve any of the problems they claim it'll solve, then i'm against it because it's a waste of time, effort, and money.

and that's before you get into whether you'd trust any of the governments on offer at present to have control of that data and to secure it - and i don't trust any of them to do that at all. they've already tried to sell our NHS data (you have to opt-out of being included, which is a disgrace in itself) so this is just more of the same shit as far as I can see.