Here’s a letter I quickly wrote and sent to the Home Office about the proposed identity card scheme. It’s not a comprehensive list of problems with the scheme, but I still think it’s important to take an active part in the process. Have a look at Samizdata for more details, and email identitycards (at) homeoffice.gsi (dot) gov.uk with your response.

Hi there,

I remain to be convinced that the government should carry out its proposed identity card scheme, and therefore I feel I must register my opposition to the scheme.

Unlike many objectors, I have no problem carrying a national idetity card, and I think such a scheme is both useful and desirable. However, there is absolutely *NO* need for a centralised database of personal information - a much better solution (and in my opinion, the only acceptable one) is to have the personal information stored only on the cards themselves, and a ‘checksum’ of the information stored centrally. This would allow my identity to be checked, but without having such an attractive and easily abused/misused central server. Hey, if SO19 can leave sniper position information in a petrol station, what makes the proposed database foolproof, both technically and socially?

Additionally, and quite importantly, I do not feel that the Home Office is responding appropriately to legitimate concerns about the system being raised by vast numbers of people. It is not enough to dismiss any opposing points of view put forward by civil liberty activists, purely through a difference in ideology. Where the concerns are raised the Home Office *must* respond to them. As has been so often stated, personal identity is a large and very important issue, and therefore any proposed solution should be subjected to, and pass, direct and detailed critiques.

Finally, the civil service and other branches of government (notably the Passport service, Inland Revenue and the NHS) have a dispicable record of wasting vast amounts of taxpayer money on ill-concieved IT projects. I see nothing to suggest that this will be anything other than the most recent one.

Thank you for your time.

Yours,
Andrew JR Allan

So there.