Defy-ID Newsletter
December
2004
Welcome to the Defy-ID occasional news bulletin on Identity
Cards and the
Surveillance State.
Contents:
1. Action Stations - days of action coming up
2. ID Cards Bill - a brief guide
3. Invasion of the Body Snoopers - the NHS database
4. Media Surveillance - some links to recent articles
5. The Defy-ID Network + Local Contacts
-------------------------------
ACTION STATIONS
Hear Ye! Hear Ye! - ID card bill in parliament before Christmas!
The ID card bill (see below) is likely to have a 2nd reading
in parliament
before Christmas. It seems likely that this will be on the 20th
or 21st
December. People at a recent Defy-ID workshop agreed that it
would be a
good idea for local groups to publicise the fact that this bill
was
happening, and what it would mean to ordinary people. The proposal
is for
local groups to get out on the streets and leaflet, have placards,
do some
street performance, do an action, or otherwise try and raise
awareness.
Manchester and Haringey will definitely be doing something and
hopefully
other groups will join in (see contacts below) so why not get
together
with a few people and get out there. Sample leaflets can be
downloaded
from the Defy-ID website or from Haringey Solidarity Group's
website.
Day of Action January 28th
Defy-ID is putting out a call for a day of direct action on
the ID cards
issue on Friday January 28th.
Your group could do anything from leafleting, to blockading
one of the
companies involved in the ID cards process. There's going to
be a page on
the Defy-ID website next week with loads of ideas for actions,
and some
possible 'targets'. We hope to be able to produce a proper 'greasy
palms'
leaflet soon, listing all the companies and organisations who
are involved
with, or stand to profit from the ID card legislation, and their
locations
around the country.
If you need any help with ideas, or want to discuss anything,
or are
desperate for a bit of cash to print some leaflets (and I mean
desperate
as we're totally unfunded) then email admin@defy-id.org.uk and
we'll see
what we can do to help you get an action off the ground.
-------------------------------
A BRIEF GUIDE TO THE IDENTITY CARDS BILL
The government is clearly keen to push the ID Cards Bill through
Parliament as quickly as possible. On Monday, 29th November,
the Bill had
its formal First Reading in the House of Commons. It was presented
by the
Home Secretary at the start of a debate on the Home Affairs
portion of the
Queen's Speech. Whilst the debate was not specific to identity
cards many
members did raise the issue. The Identity Cards Bill is likely
to get a
Second Reading (the first stage of real debate in parliament)
before
Christmas.
The Identity Cards Bill could alternatively be known as the
National
Identity Register Bill since it seems to be primarily concerned
with the
establishment of a national ID database rather than with the
issuing of ID
cards. Indeed, it will be possible for the government to create
an entry
for you in the National Identity Register without the issuing
of an
Identity Card and without your cooperation or knowledge.
David Blunkett recently wrote to a friend (a random unsolicited
letter
possibly based on her postcode) to ask her opinion on ID cards.
.The
letter, written in an illiberal BNP-esque tone, talked about
ID cards as
an aid to stopping terrorism, sex offenders, illegal immigrants,
organised
criminals, benefit cheats and prevent failed asylum seekers
using services
like the NHS. Crucially, it included the disingenuous information
about ID
cards that the government is going to be using to market them
to the
public.
"I want to reassure you" Blunkett offers "that
the ID cards will not be
used to build up a profile on innocent people or allow your
private,
personal information to be used without tight safeguards. The
ID card will
hold only very basic details, such as your name, address, date
and place
of birth and a finger print or the scan of your eye which securely
establishes your unique identity. The ID card will hold just
enough
information to help us in the fight against crime and no more."
Hmmm.
An examination of the bill shows that Blunkett is stretching
a point. For
example, it won't just include your full name, but all the names
by which
you have ever been known. Not just your address, but all the
addresses
you have ever lived at. Not just your finger print or iris scan,
but a
photo as well. Also, your National Insurance number, immigration
number,
passport number, driving licence number, and, the number of
'any
designated document not covered by the above'. Plus if you want
to change
any information (for which they will charge you, or fine you
if you don't
change it) the old information also stays on the card.
The ability to check your identity against your entry in the
National
Identity Register will not just be available to the Immigration
Service
and the Police but also to "providers of public services
and private
sector organisations" (e.g. employers, banks, credit reference
agencies,
libraries, dentists, utilities companies, student loans company
etc). The
ID Card bill includes a power to require 'any person' to provide
information which may be required to conduct background checks
on people
applying for ID cards. So in theory they could force anyone
to give
information about you. In practice this is likely to be credit
reference
agencies, inland revenue, and so on (though they make it clear
that they
won't expect this information for free). The Bill also states
that if the
info the government receives from this 'person' or organisation
differs
from their own records, they'll inform that organisation. So
if, for
example, you are running away from debts and tell the government
your
address, they can/will tell the credit reference agency who
of course will
tell the bailiffs.
Not compulsory?!?!
The government believes that the ID card will be necessary
to go about
your daily life. One of the justifications they are using for
ID cards is
that they will make the lives of terrorists harder, and according
to the
Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) published alongside the bill,
terrorists will need an ID card, "to stay in hotels, rent
accommodation,
hire cars, buy mobile phone, and generally carry out their activities"
(p.13). This implies we'll all need ID cards for these purposes.
The RIA
also mentions that police can do a 'card not present' check.
This means
that the cops will be carrying the means of taking your biometric
information - face, fingerprints or iris - and checking that
against the
database to establish your identity. No wonder the carrying
of the card is
not to be compulsory - it is not needed to access the information
about
you in the Register - only your iris or fingerprints. The Police
are
already planning to deploy mobile fingerprint readers. The RIA
also
acknowledges that the Register will be a national fingerprint
database
that the Police will use to identify suspects in unsolved cases
where
there are scene of crime fingerprints that have not been identified.
The RIA suggests that when the existing 'chip and pin' cardreaders,
that
have recently been introduced in Post Office and retailers across
the UK,
are upgraded in a few years time they could be made compatible
with the ID
cards.
You will not be required to use a card unless you wish to work,
use the
banking or health system, travel or receive benefits. As Mr
Blunkett
advised Parliament: "The issuing of a card does not force
anyone to use
it, although in terms of drivers or passport users, or if services
-
whether public or private - required some proof of identity
before
expenditure was laid out, without proof of identity and therefore
entitlement to do it I doubt whether non-use of it would last
very long."
Forgot to change your address? - Criminal!!!
It is important to keep in mind that the card will be buttressed
by a vast
array of new state powers and criminal penalties. The Bill creates
a score
of new offences including
- refusal to obey an order to register = £2500
- failure to submit to fingerprinting and biometric scanning
= £2500
- failure to provide information demanded by the government
= £2500
- failure to attend an interview at a specified place and time
= £2500
- failure to notify authorities about a lost, stolen, damaged
or defective
card = up to 51 weeks in prison and/or a fine
- failure to renew a card = £1000
- failure to attend subsequent fingerprinting and biometric
scanning when
demanded = £1000
- failure to provide subsequent information when demanded =
£1000
- failure to attend subsequent interview at specified place
and time when
demanded = £1000
- failure to notify authorities of any change in personal circumstances
(including change of address) = £1000
- providing false information = up to 2 years and/or a fine
To add insult to injury, many of the offences set out in the
Bill are
civil penalties meaning it's unlikely you'll get legal aid to
help your
defence.
Limitless spying opportunities
The Bill sets out a number of purposes for the Card and the
Register. Some
are more open-ended than others. For example, the card scheme
will allow
"the provision of a secure and reliable method for registrable
facts about
such individuals to be ascertained or verified wherever that
is necessary
in the public interest."
"Public Interest" has a number of dimensions. The
Bill defines it as being
"in the interests of national security", "for
the purposes of the
prevention or detection of crime", "for the purposes
of the enforcement of
immigration controls", "for the purposes of the enforcement
of
prohibitions on unauthorised working or employment" and
"for the purpose
of securing the efficient and effective provision of public
services."
On the face of it, this definition would imply that the card
and the
register would be necessary to seek employment, to gain access
to health
and other services, and that it would be used by police and
immigration
officers in the course of their functions. However the words
"for the
purposes of the prevention or detection of crime" could
be connected to
financial control and money laundering regulations to provide
a means by
which the ID system can be used for an almost limitless range
of purposes.
The could include operating a bank account, using professional
services
such as a solicitor or accountant, applying for a permit or
license,
internal travel, buying property, stocks or shares, applying
for credit or
using large amounts of cash.
Data Sharing and the National Identity Register
The Regulatory Impact Assessment says: "as Government
services update
their systems over time they could cross-reference their personal
numbering schemes with the NIRN. This would allow ... citizens
to quote
just one number in their dealings with different parts of Government".
In
other words your NIRN will be used to link all of the data in
all of the
government databases, e.g. NHS medical records. What is more,
private
companies are also likely to ask for this number which meaning
the
information that anyone holds on you will all be referenced
with the one
number, making it very easy to access and link up.
How much will it cost me to be controlled and spied upon?
The government estimated in 2002 that the scheme would cost
somewhere in
the order of £3.1 billion. When in 2004 the Home Affairs
Committee asked
the Home Secretary to clarify the exact amount he refused, citing
commercial secrecy. By the time the final Bill was published
in November
2004 the government acknowledged that the cost of the scheme
over ten
years would be £5.5 billion. We will pay for this scheme
out of our own
pockets. An "enhanced" passport, which includes entry
on the national
register, will cost around £85. An ID card without a passport
will cost
between £35 and £40. There will be a charge for
the renewal or replacement
of cards.
You can download and read the Bill and Home Office reports
here:
Identity Cards Bill
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200405/cmbills/008/2005008.pdf
Explanatory notes to the bill
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200405/cmbills/008/en/05008x--.htm
Regulatory Impact Assessment
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/docs3/ria_251104.pdf
Race Impact Assessment
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/docs3/reia_241104.pdf
-------------------------------
"To be GOVERNED is to be watched, inspected, spied upon,
directed,
law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached
at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded,
by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the
virtue to do so. To be GOVERNED is to be at every operation,
at every
transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured,
numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented,
forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext
of
public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to
be placed
under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized,
extorted
from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then at the slightest resistance,
the
first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed,
hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned,
judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed,
and to
crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored.
That is
government; that is its justice; that is its morality."
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
-------------------------------
INVASION OF THE BODY SNOOPERS
Our medical records about to go online!
The government is going to spend £40bn over ten years
on an IT program of
'modernisation' of the Health System: the 'National Program
for
IT'(NPfIT). The NPfIT will include a national database of the
medical
records of all the NHS patients (Integrated Care Record Service',
ICRS).
The Health Authorities say that this program will respect patients'
consent, and that patients will be allowed to 'opt out' of the
database.
However, the reality is:-
* The national database of medical records is going to be created
without patients' consent. We will only have limited right to
consent
access to our data, once they are on the database.
* Our right to 'opt out' will be limited to our right to deny
access to an 'identifiable' version of the database (where our
names are
explicitly written). But another version of the same data will
be created
in a 'pseudonymised' form (where our names are coded). This
will be widely
accessible to non-medical (private?) companies without our consent.
* The keywords to decode our 'pseudonymised' data will be kept
by
the government, and government authorities such as the police
will be
allowed to decode our data in (the suitably vague) 'special
circumstances'. What are these 'special circumstances'? Plenty
of
repressive laws have already been introduced in the UK for 'special
circumstances' or 'extremely serious crime' and have been used
against
political protests, extremely petty crime, and to harass ethnic
minorities
or the poorest in society.
* Databases can be hacked into. Even the Pentagon isn't secure.
The doctors rebel
In June 2004 the annual meeting of local medical committees
of the BMA
voted to boycott the ICRS. The GPs recognised that the holding
of personal
medical data on a central database demolishes the ethos of the
professional and confidential doctor/patient relationship. The
NHS
website attacked our GPs and said that: 'to boycott a programme
of such
huge importance to the NHS is unprofessional'.
NPfIT and a surveillance state.
In September 2003 Blunkett was already speaking of linking
the NHS
database to the national identity database. If Blunkett's plans
go
unchallenged, one day the police, the DSS (DWP), etc. will be
able to type
our 'unique' ID number and read all about our health problems
(unwanted
pregnancies? impotence? drug addictions? phobia of rats?...);
our
accidents and their circumstances; our sexual relations and
next of kin.
Medical records can reveal private facts and relations. They
can be
humiliating. And besides purely medical data, the ICRS will
also register
our 'quality of life, activities of daily living and severity
measures' -
what we do during the day, our social class and living conditions!!
Our
medical records are useful also (and above all?) because they
are
information - and today, information, of any kind, is first
of all
valuable 'resources.
The ICRS and big business
When information becomes 'resources', which means power (and
money), greed
is inevitable: the government and private companies lick their
lips at the
thought of the incredible wealth of information on us which
is at present
kept out off their hands. 'Modernisation' means 'gathering and
distributing' these 'resources', freeing them from the hindrance
of
old-fashioned Hippocratic ethics. Freed from our GPs' custody,
made mobile
and digitalised, our medical records will lose the ball-and-chain
of
confidentiality and become a 'resource for opportunities', that
is raw
material able to flow at the rhythm of the profit-making pace
of the
modern world. This mobility is a precondition for the transformation
of
the health service into a modern business - where we and our
GPs are not
persons, whose feelings, professionalism and dignity have a
(non-monetary)
value, but mere sources of 'resources' - and where these 'resources'
are
(monetary) value, worth being exploited.
They will shift the goalposts!
The Health Authorities say that the database will be 'confidential'
and
'safe'. But the issue is not its alleged 'safety' and 'confidentiality',
but its very existence. Once our intimate information, formerly
under
custody of our GPs, becomes available on-line, it is very simple
for the
government to relax the legal terms and conditions for access.
We are
ruled by a government which has gone already far in post-9/11
police and
law abuses against minorities and protesters. And a business-bent
government which one day may abide to the interests of private
companies
such as insurance agencies or of the UK employers and concede
access to
them...
The thin end of the wedge!
Virtual access to our records will be possible only if our
doctors adopt a
new and uniform computer system which allows for remote 'link'
to our
records. This will be soon be realised. The NHS is now introducing
the new
'Choose and Book' system in some of our surgeries. This system
is designed
to present some interactivity and give an appearance of 'choice'
to
patients. But, more importantly it is also designed to make
patients'
records helplessly open to automatic remote access and download!
This
November the BMA has warned our GPs about the insecurity of
the 'Choose
and Book' trial, but it is up to the individual surgeries whether
to
boycott it or join it. The 'Choose and Book' system is the thin
edge of
the wedge: once our records are put on a system which is open
to remote
access, there will be no obstacles to the national database.
* PATIENTS. Ask your GPs to confirm that your medical records
are
and will be safe in their custody, in the present, future and
after our
death. That they won't be loaded without your consent into a
system that
allows for remote access (in particular the 'Choose and Book'
system). If
your doctors has already adopted the 'Choose and Book' system,
do not give
them your consent to book appointments for you though it. Ask
your GP to
stick to the boycott of the Integrated Care Record Service.
* DOCTORS. Be real doctors not state spies. Respect patients'
consent as sacred and stick to the boycott of the ICRS. Boycott
the
'Choose and Book' system and stick to your old IT or paper system.
* PROTEST AND CAMPAIGN. Help us informing as many people as
you can. They
count on our ignorance and on our silence. Pass this information
to your
friends, relatives, medical colleagues...
NOTE:
This information was extracted from a leaflet produced by Brighton
Against
Databases. The leaflet, which is extensively footnoted, is available
on
the web page at http://www.defy-id.org.uk/resources.htm
To contact Brighton Against Databases, email
brighton_against_databases@yahoo.co.uk
-------------------------------
MEDIA SURVEILLANCE
“The new face of hi-tech detection”
The Guardian
Saturday 11th December
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1371369,00.html
“Chaos as police fingerprint database fails”
The Independent
Friday 3rd December
http://tinyurl.com/4xrt2
-------------------------------
THE DEFY-ID NETWORK
The network exists to raise awareness about ID cards, to actively
resist
the introduction of ID cards, and to support those taking action
against
the police state more generally. Defy-ID is not a national membership
organisation, it is a network of groups from around the UK.
We've been holding workshops at events around the country for
a couple of
years, and held a gathering in September, to try to move the
network
forward (see previous email for minutes, or check the website).
From the
gathering, and since then, a number of local groups around the
country
have begun to emerge.
The best way to get involved with Defy-ID is to contact your
nearest
group. The contact details for local groups are listed below
(some are
just beginning - so be patient if you don't get a response immediately).
If there is not one in your area perhaps you should think of
forming one,
or asking another group if they would be a contact point for
people
interested in these issues.
LOCAL GROUPS
Armagh & Down
Organise! PO Box 547, Craigavon, BT63 6WZ
tel: 07732 954 843
organise_armaghdown@yahoo.ie
Bolton
Pete tel: 07969657521
Bradford
bradford@defy-id.org.uk
Brighton
Brighton@defy-id.org.uk
Bristol
c/o Kebele
tel: 01179399469
Cambridge
cambridge@lists.riseup.net
www.cambridgeaction.net
Cheshire
mradams1107@aol.com
Glasgow
glasgow@defy-id.org.uk
Guilford
molemarvel@aol.com
Herts (South East)
southbigmouth@hotmail.com
Leeds
incitement2@riseup.net
Leicester
leicester@defy-id.org.uk
Lincoln
lincoln@defy-id.org.uk
Liverpool
ju4justices@yahoo.co.uk
London (Barnet/Brent)
howard@starbuckscoffee.co.uk
London (Hackney)
London Class War PO Box 467, London, E8 3QX
www.londonclasswar.org
London (Haringey)
PO Box 2474, London, N8
tel: 020 8374 5027
haringey@defy-id.org.uk
www.haringey.org.uk
Manchester
manchester@defy-id.org.uk
Norwich
jacky@jackyhonour.freeserve.co.uk
Nottingham
245 Gladstone St, Nottingham, NG7 6HX
tel: 0845 458 9595
info@veggies.org.uk
Stoke on Trent
Sim
tel: 07751216564
simta@hotmail.com
Worthing
worthing@eco-action.org
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