Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
Options
Grumpy old man resents ID cards. Anyone else feel the same?
The materials in this website are in no way intended to replace the professional medical care, advice, diagnosis or treatment of a doctor, qualified personal trainer, therapist, dietitian or nutritionist Runners's World, Part of the Hearst UK well-being network © Copyright 2017
Comments
What would people think ?
Suppose these people didn't have alibis (one was in prison at the time of the "offence")?
The more people you have in the database, the more likely it is that you will get false positives.
As for fingerprints. There has only actually been one study on the uniqueness of fingerprints. (Click here). It showed they weren't particularly useful.
The "20th Madrid trainbomber" was arrested on the basis of a 100% fingerprint match. He turned out to be an upstanding US Army officer who had never left the country. (Lucky he wasn't a bit foreign looking, or the confession might have been beaten out of him!)
These tools can and should be used by the police - by confirming a suspected link between a criminal and a crime. They should not be used for "trawling expeditions".
I'm now home, with my running shoes on, and I *will* go for that run.
No bridge for me, Although if you keep looking I do have a website which (gasp) has lots of information about me
MK
an ID card is the same as a passport. Only you can't travel to every country in the world with it. And it's not as thick as a passport.
Oh, belgium has ID cards. I can garanty you that no runner carries them around while running (do you carry your passport?). Most people keep it in their purse, so that they have it when driving or going out (to show that you are allowed to get in the pub/club).
I never had fingerprints taken or have given DNA to get the ID card.
How often do you lose your passport? Or your driver's license?
Thought not.
ID card holders take the same care with these documents, because they are so difficult to replace and cause you so much grief if you lose them.
We are already not free in thought and not free to speak (unless it is within the bounds deemed acceptable by this countries ruling liberal elite). With ID cards simply existing without one would make you a criminal.
We don't need ID cards and we do need a first amendment. In my view anyway
What's more is big brother is going to be watching you a whole lot more in the future, probably to the point where there will be too much info so noone will give a sh!t.
You have:
Automatic Number Plate Recognition so you can't drive anywhere without being spotted;
How many times do you get zapped on CCTV, only soon CCTV facial recognition will be in and then the camera will pick you up (unless you are astute like most crims and wear a hooded top);
Every time your phone is giving a signal, we know where you are, heck you're call's even getting tapped;
How many prox reader cards have you got, say 2,3? Every time you use it you are getting tracked;
The only anons are the crooked.
If I go out on the piss, to a gig or whatever, I only take cash and a front door key. If someone nicks the cash from my back pocket, there are no repurcussions.
Have you ever been mugged/robbed? How would you feel if someone stole your ID card - the "master key" to your every function.
If everyone has a valuable ID card on them, then everyone becomes a worthwhile target of a mugger.
You could have it like credit cards. If you lose your ID card, or get mugged, you phone up a 24-HR helpline and get your card cancelled, with another one winging its way to you in the post. Government/24-HR helpline, can you imagine it?
If I lose my library card, I just can't borrow books. If I lose my ID card, I lose everything.
The difference between all the surveillance methods that you list and what is proposed is that they all get tied together.
Ask any American what is the biggest cause of identity theft, and they will tell you Social Security Numbers. Everyone gets a single number that ties everything together. If someone knows your number, they are 90% of the way towards cloning your ID.
This is what the government are proposing - a single ID to tie together every other corrupt database in existance.
As for your final comment about people wanting anonymity being crooked....
I'm sat here in my house with the curtains closed, minding my own honest business IN PRIVACY AND ANONYMITY. I presume you've got your curtains wide open so passers by can watch what you're doing?
To those who say they have nothing to hide, where do you draw the line? Would you be willing to have CCTV cameras in your houses?
Finally - just because some of you don't care, that isn't any reason to inflict your ID cards on me.
I suppose I don't know how secure it is as yet, but would've thought it would be pretty well encrypted so that vital info would only be available to certain readers. How naive, I dunno?
What I was getting at is you already carry a lot of ID anyhow, well maybe 'you' dont so much. I think if someone was to nick my ID card and start using it, I would also be tracked using the different prox readers I have, would also be picked up by the CCTV camera's I pass (in the future when you get facial recognition it may be even more conclusive), the ANPR would be picking up my car, swipes, GSM, shed I may even be getting WI-FI next...... Can you just get a new ID card if this happens? I would've thought so, people will lose them, and they'll certainly get them stolen. There surely must have been some security measures built in to account for such mishaps.
Not saying you're wrong or right, you've got some perfectly good points, same as there are some pretty good arguments for the cards. I'm on the fence at the moment but I'll be pretty interested in the technical side of these cards will work.
Cheers, my back curtains are open, but my front ones are drawn (couldn't have the nieghbours think I watch I'm a Celeb).
On the DNA is not unique argument - it may not be - but it would still be a very useful tool in catching criminals - eyewitnes statements are not 100% reliable but they are still evidence - and if we use the "nothing to hide argument" to justify an ID card surely it justifies a DNA sample too.
Not that I'm in favour of either. I think it's indicative of the way society is moving economic freedom is increasingly seen as a fundamental right whereas personal freedoms are undermined.
It's all very well saying that the Government/whoever are there to serve the public, not be our masters, but sometimes we need to co-operate to help them achieve things that we want, like reduced crime. If a minor inconvenience such as carrying an ID card achieves that, seems like a good deal to me.
That of course assumes it will - I think arguments that it won't have some credence. Indeed - identity theft is becoming more and more of an issue. If peeps think they can really really trust an ID card 100%, then anyone who can fake IDs has *huge* potential to do damage.
If I were ever arrested for a terrorist offense, I would be damned happy if there was video footage of me going to my local Tesco's at the time in question, yet unhappy that things had gotten that far.
Should I ever be hit by a car and knocked unconscious while out running, I would be happy to know that the ID in my pocket would tell the hospital that I was allergic to pennicillin.
See also for the US angle:
"Database Nation: The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century" by Simson Garfinkel
"How can we protect our basic rights to privacy, identity, and autonomy when technology is making invasion and control easier than ever before"...
moomoo - some of the Guantanemo detainees had video surveillance footage that showed they were working in Curry's in the north of England at the time they were alleged to have been in Afghanistan plotting terrorism. It was ignored, as it could have been faked. If you're accused of being a terrorist, then video of you buying your groceries from Tesco is unlikely to help you.
Also, would you trust your penicillin allergy to a central database? Bear in mind it will be administered by the company that bid the lowest price to run it. Someone like Capita perhaps, that regularly sends London congestion charge fines to tractors that have never left Cumbria.
As for Currys harbouring terrorists, every one knows Osama Bin Laden is working in Dixons in Hull
Help, Help! Let me out!
Oooops, I forgot. Anyone hear the New Labour Wonk on R4 this morning? 'We need to allow wire tapping, because then all the people we've locked in Belmarsh without charge or trial can be tried & locked up legally'
Feel more secure?
The more phone tapping the better, ( should I mention i sell telecoms equipment ? No !)
We moved into a brand new house 12 months back.... Non of the major firms ( Dixons, argos, Ikea) would deliver to it, cos it wasn't on the version of multi map they have in the shops.... Sales assistant "Have you got a gas bill ?" ... I'm trying to buy a gas cooker... we haven't moved in yet, so you haven't a gas bill ? have you a phone bill ...... AAARgh. Here is my driving licence, passport, platinum credit card wont that do ?????
Lots more prison officers, security guards, telecoms engineers, spooks, judges ( no need for juries tho)
So it's not protecting us from terrorists it's about job creation