23 November 2006
You will hopefully by now have seen that we are exploring the properties of the new 'biometric' ePassport. Last week's Guardian[1] and Daily Mail[2] coverage was just the beginning. We hope to force a recall (unlikely - though we applaud Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP, for immediately calling for one) or to allow people to *legally* disable their own chips, if they have concerns[3]. We need your help with some further research that we are doing.
If you renewed your passport recently, you may have one of the ones with a chip in it - you may not(chipped passport have the International Civil Aviation Organisation(ICAO) ePassport logo on the front[4]). As we have said, the information stored on the chip at present is no more than what you see on the photo page PLUS (we can now confirm) some measurements that have been derived from a scan of your photo. All very useful to identity thieves...
If you are willing to help, please e-mail passports@no2id.net with:
Please DO NOT send any more than the above information. We do not wish to compromise your privacy or the security of your own passport in any way, and what you will be sending is useless to anyone except for the specific problem that we are tackling.
Phil Booth
References:
We now have a new local group in Coventry (contact via coventry@no2id.net) and we are in the process of setting up a group in Ipswich. We have local groups around the country and in 36 of the 69 locations of ID interrogation centres.
If you can help to set up a local group in one of the remaining towns then please contact us at (office@no2id.net). A local group can start with just one person but we will help you to grow. A full list of local groups can be found at www.no2id.net/localGroups
The BBC's Newsnight programme is running a competition for viewers to make a 2-minute news programme on any news item they wish. This would be an ideal opportunity to highlight the dangers of the National Identity Register and ID cards. The deadline for submitting films is 4 December 2006.
More info at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/6114950.stm
The Hackney local group covering London E8, E5, E9 & N16 areas meet on the first Tuesday of each month at 7:30 in Cafe Bohemia by Hackney Central Station. New support very welcome to help raise awareness over the coming months.
Cambridge NO2ID will be running Saturday street stalls outside Cambridge Guildhall from 10am onwards on 25th November, 16th December, and every third Saturday into the new year. Location:(http://tinyurl.com/eo42r). Volunteers to help very welcome - contact Andrew Watson via cambridge@no2id.net, or on 07710 469 624.
After a short break during the Edinburgh Festival NO2ID Edinburgh has resumed its regular Princes Street campaigning stall on Saturdays. We shall be at our usual location at the east end of Princes Street, opposite the Balmoral Hotel, from 1pm - 3pm this coming Saturday. We use our stall to raise public awareness of the Identity Cards scheme, collect donations and entries for the NO2ID petition, and also to increase membership of our group. Please do pop by for a chat if you happen to be around. We shall be aiming to have the stall up and running most Saturdays, and new volunteers are always very welcome. You can see photos of our stall and contact details at: www.no2id-scotland.net/edinburgh/.
Friday, 24th November. The Luton Group will be holding an informal social evening (dinner + pub) New and existing members very welcome. Please email luton@no2id.net for details.
Saturday, 25th November, from 11am onwards at The Sumac Centre in Nottingham. Meeting to discuss opposition to ID Cards and the National ID Register. This is not so much a public meeting to discuss the overall implications of the ID scheme, as a planning day of how we are going to stop it. See http://www.nottingham-defy-id.org.uk/gathering
Bristol NO2ID will be holding their second benefit gig at the White Bear at the top of St Michael's Hill. Bands include 'Cobra Kai' and 'We Take Flight'.Tickets £3 on the door. Cheap drinks inside... Map
For more details (you need more?) please e-mail bristol@no2id.net
Tuesday 28th November 7:30pm at 'The Kingswood' Beefeater Pub on Kingswood Retail Park, Hull.
Wednesday, 29th November, 7.00pm - 9.00pm at Clore Lecture Theatre, Huxley Building, Imperial College - Queen's Gate/Prince Consort Road, South Kensington, London SW7
Sir Malcolm Rifkind, QC, MP and Henry Porter (further speakers to be confirmed), consider where we go from here. The Identity Cards Act 2006 is law, and must be repealed, but meanwhile the government is already working on extending its scope, through "information sharing" across the public sector and an "Identity Management Action Plan" to be produced by the end of this year. What new threats does this offer to personal liberty? How can the slide to the database state be halted? Open to all.
Wednesday, 29th November 5.30pm - 6.30pm - We will be returning to Victoria Station for a spot of evening flyering. Meet outside station.
A documentary looking at privacy intrusive technology is to be broadcast on Channel 4 in November. In the programme, called 'Suspect Nation', journalist Henry Porter will explore how a number of new technologies are being used to support an authoritarian push against our privacy and civil liberties - including ID cards. The documentary will air on Saturday 25th November at 7.05pm and 11.55pm and on Wednesday 29 November at 10.00pm on More 4.
Monday, 4th December 8.15pm at The Armoury in Shrewsbury. Look for NO2ID leaflets on our table. The Amoury has a huge selection of good beers and is well located by the river. It's also only 600m from the railway station. All welcome.
Monday, 4 December 7.00-9.00 pm at The Library, Quaker Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace, Edinburgh EH1 2JL. As we approach key elections next year, how can we fight for our freedoms, and begin to recapture our hard-won democracy? Come along to this meeting, and explore these vital issues. Light refreshments available. Street map: http://tinyurl.com/lubac
Thursday, 7th December 7.30pm - NO2ID campaigners in Nottingham will be "plotting" in the oldest pub in Britain: Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, Brewhouse Yard, Nottingham.NG1 6AD (See http://www.triptojerusalem.com/)
Tuesday, 12th December 6.30 for a 7pm start at Jorene Celeste pub on 153 Upper Street. All welcome!
On Wednesday 15th November a large group of Ipswich NO2ID supporters put on a good show for the cameras outside Ipswich Borough council offices. Campaigners then went in to voice planning objections to the proposed Home Office ID card interrogation centre in the town. Planning committee papers and links to the media coverage are on the newly-formed Ipswich NO2ID web site: http://no2id-ip.web-brewer.co.uk.
Ipswich NO2ID supporters filed a total of six objections on planning grounds such as traffic, parking & loss of amenity. Mapeley ABI provider Ltd, applying on behalf of the Home Office to convert the offices at Crown House, claimed that only 16 people per day would be going there, all first-time passport applicants. Geoff Brace, speaking on behalf of all the protesters, pointed out that this figure would increase by as much as ten times when everyone renewing a passport is also forced to go to these centres to be biometrically scanned for an ID card. Even though Mapeley didn't send anyone to speak at the meeting, the planning committee chose to believe the company's figures, not Geoff's, and discounted his estimate on the grounds that: "The supporting letter from the applicant makes no mention of ID cards, only passport applicants. The possibility that the Government will introduce ID cards is not a material consideration for this application." Ipswich NO2ID is considering appealing the decision on the grounds that the application materially misrepresented the facts.
Meanwhile, outside the meeting NO2ID activists were leafleting people going into both the Borough Council and Suffolk County Council's offices opposite. They got a good reception, and signed up a few dozen more NO2ID supporters. Overall, with blanket coverage across all Ipswich's three local radio stations and in the local papers (scans and recordings on the web site), this was a good day for the fight against ID cards in East Anglia.
For more details on what happened at the planning meeting, contact Geoff Brace (07779 272225) or Andrew Watson (07710 469624).
Many thanks to volunteers in Coventry, Hull, Leeds, Nottingham, Sheffield, Swindon, Trowbridge and Yeovil for responding our fingerprinting in pubs call to action in the last newsletter. Also well done to Martin Twomey in Hackney for producing (and distributing) the first flyer! As can be seen in the 'What's next' above there are forthcoming meetings in both Hull and Nottingham to plan campaigning on this issue. We still need more volunteers — if you are in any of the towns affected and are willing to do something then send an e-mail to phil@no2id.net (please put "pub fingerprinting" in the Subject). We would also like to hear about pubs and clubs that are operating blanket ID checks regardless of age.
The London borough of Redbridge passed an anti-ID cards motion last Wednesday(16th November). There was overwhelming support for the motion to affiliate to the NO2ID campaign and refuse to cooperate with the scheme unless compelled to do so by the Government. There was a heated debate with numerous passionate and well informed contributions, particularly from the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. Each member had been sent an information pack in advance by the local NO2ID group. During the earlier part of the meeting the Redbridge NO2ID coordinator was also allowed to put questions to the leader of the council. The first, which was included on the agenda, concerned the cost to local council tax payers of the scheme. This was followed up with a question on whether there were more useful things on which this money could be spent locally. The motion was passed by 43 votes to 15 with unanimous support from the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats and from the one BNP member. The 15 votes opposing the motion were from the Labour group, although it was striking how few of them apparently felt able to contribute towards the debate.
The results of an ICM poll commissioned by NO2ID utterly refute Tony Blair's assertion earlier this month that "surveys" show the public are "overwhelmingly behind" ID cards. Asked what they think of the Government's proposed introduction of identity cards that, in combination with their passport, will cost around £93, 18% said they thought it was "a very good idea", 32% "a good idea", 26% "a bad idea" and 23% "a very bad idea"-a finely balanced split of 50% for and 49% against ID cards. ICM Research interviewed a random sample of 1007 adults aged 18+ by telephone between 8th-9th November 2006. Interviews were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults. ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.
Full details of the poll will be available shortly at http://www.icmresearch.co.uk/reviews/latest-polls.asp
Ten police forces in the UK have begun testing mobile fingerprint readers which will check fingerprints against a central database. The system is to be trialed for a year by police in Essex, Hertfordshire, Lancashire, North Wales, Northamptonshire, West Midlands and West Yorkshire, as well as by British Transport Police and the Metropolitan Police. When police in these areas stop motorists and ask for a means of verifying their identity they may ask the motorist to volunteer for a fingerprint check to compare their print against those in the police database. If the motorist declines the offer then the police officer may arrest the individual, resulting in their fingerprints and DNA being taken at the police station. Another interesting use of the word "voluntary".
Currently the police do not have fingerprints for most of the population and they say that once they have checked someone's print they will delete it from their system. Of course the police said the same about fingerprints and DNA samples collected from arrested people - they promised to destroy those of the innocent. In fact they illegally retained 50,000 sets of fingerprints and DNA samples. Subsequently Section 64 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 was brought in to validate the illegality and allow fingerprints and DNA to be stored in future whether or not a citizen has been convicted or even charged with an offence.
The technology being trialed, called 'LANTERN', has been developed by the PITO and is part of IDENT1 formerly known as the National Automated Fingerprint
Identification System(NAFIS), which has been in development since 1987 (see www.pito.org.uk/products/ident1.php). PITO state in their 2006-7 business plan that they expect "to prepare an outline business case for national video identification systems, define standards and link video images with facial images stored within FIND[Facial Images National Database], during the coming year".
Compulsory ID should be abolished in the Netherlands, says the party that made the biggest gains in the Dutch general election on 22 November. The Socialist Party will have 26 seats in the new Dutch parliament - a major advance over its previous 17 seats in an election which saw most parties lose ground. The SP will now be the third-biggest parliamentary party. It sees compulsory ID as "a typical example of symbolic legislation. It is sold to people as a measure that promotes security, but in practice it is just a nuisance. People who are really out to do wrong will of course make sure that they have their ID (forged or not) in their pockets." The SP says that "every day, on average, 150 people in the Netherlands are fined for not producing ID." Proportionately, that would be about 750 fines per day in the UK. The strongly law-and-order CDA remains the biggest parliamentary party, but its score went down slightly, from 44 seats to 41. The CDA and its junior coalition partner, which also saw its vote drop, imposed the obligation to show ID on 1 January 2005. The opposition Labour Party, which supported the ID measure at the time but has gone silent on the issue recently, is still in second place, but lost a lot of votes to the SP. Labour's seats have been cut from 42 to 32. There are now 10 parties in the Dutch parliament, so it may take some time to hammer out a coalition policy package. But anti-ID parties are likely to be inside the next Dutch government.
Students at a Furness school could be given photo ID cards as part of a bid to encourage healthy eating and cut down on the number of people leaving school without permission. Head teacher Karen Hanks wants year 11 pupils - who all wear school uniforms - to each have a credit-card sized identification, which would allow them to be served in shops by stating they had permission to be out of school.
http://tinyurl.com/y8om3e
One in two GPs have signalled their intention not to upload patients clinical details to the NHS Care Records Service (NCRS) without explicit patient consent, in direct opposition to Department of Health (DH) policy.
http://www.ehiprimarycare.com/news/item.cfm?ID=2280
Fingerprints on clay tablets were used in ancient Babylon to signify business deals and thumbprints have been found on seals dating back to the second century BC in China. In 1891, Juan Vucetich, an Argentinian police officer, began to collect the first fingerprint files to use in criminal investigations. These unique skin patterns have supplied cast-iron alibis, and brought about criminal downfall, for more than a century. Now they are at the heart of a controversy that is angering parents and posing a dilemma for governors.
http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/teach/story/0,,1952673,00.html
A passport centre which people fear will help pave the way for the government's controversial ID cards to be introduced looks likely to be opened up in Norwich. The Home Office wants to set up an interview and administration centre - one of 69 across Britain - at St Crispin's House in Duke Street.
http://tinyurl.com/yjjrbr
The Irish Passport Office has begun issuing electronic passports, or ePassports, for Irish citizens. The new documents feature a secure, contact-less electronic chip that can store encrypted digital ninformation.
http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/6282/194
He said today: "I have listened to the concerns of domestic abuse groups who are worried about the massive amount of information which will be accessible on anyone with an ID card. It will be far easier to
track down those women who are in hiding because they have experienced abuse and feel threatened.
http://www.newswales.co.uk/?sectionfiltered=Politics&F=1&id=9989
When you attend your appointment at the ID office in Luton's Stuart Street at some stage in the next few years, you will have your fingerprints taken, your eyes scanned and 59 varieties of personal information taken from you.
http://tinyurl.com/y7dnm6
The contracts to build and run the United Kingdom's national ID card system will not go out to tender before April of next year, the head of the Identity and Passport Service [UKIPS] has admitted. James Hall, the new CEO of the UKIPS, revealed more details on the ID cards timetable when he met with suppliers last week at a meeting hosted by the British IT industry trade body Intellect.
http://tinyurl.com/y6k922
University of California Police Department officers shot a student several times with a Taser inside the Powell Library CLICC computer lab late Tuesday night before taking him into custody. At around 11:30 p.m., CSOs asked a male student using a computer in the back of the room to leave when he was unable to produce a BruinCard[ID card] during a random check.
http://dailybruin.com/news/articles.asp?id=38958
The controversial idea of Canadians carrying a national identification card that bears their personal information has the support of more than half the country, a new study of public attitudes towards privacy suggests.
http://tinyurl.com/u4h6f
The Hong Kong privacy commissioner has ordered a school to stop fingerprinting children before it becomes a runaway trend that is too late to stop. The school, in the Kowloon District, installed the system last year but, under the order of the Hong Kong Privacy Commission, has ripped it out and destroyed all the fingerprint data it had taken from children.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/09/hongkong_kiddyprinting/
The government is coming to Reading to snoop into your personal life by
opening one of its "Big Brother" interrogation centres in the heart of
the town. Civil liberties groups fear the Big Brother office is the
thin end of the wedge, with the centres becoming a treasure trove for
criminal gangs eager to get their hands on criminal data to sell to a
host of salivating marketing men.
http://tinyurl.com/y6an3t
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