Thoughts on this?

[miasmum]

I didn't actually read the article I would like an ID card Ive come unstuck a few times because I don't have any photo ID

[Suff]

I guess it is easier for a woman, but I have got into the habit of carrying a man bag due to my time in Europe. You see, because they have ID cards it is mandatory that you can identify yourself and the only proof, that they will accept, I have is my passport.

Several early replacement passports and I started carrying a man bag.

I don't care what inducements they give for the ID card or what guarantees. Eventually they will demand you carry it.

You might want to ask WM what happens when you leave one in your pocket when you put your clothes in the wash.

The Army replaced our original ID cards with a plastic credit card type one. They broke up just as credit cards do. One person I worked with made an aluminium "wallet" for his after 2 broken cards and a warning not to do it again.

Then they changed to heat sealed laminated cards. After 10 years I used to go down to the RBS ID card room and have them put my ID card through the laminating machine. Every three months.

As I say, I have lived with an ID card. WM has also. It is not as simple as is portrayed and once you have it in society you are never, ever, going to get rid of it because it gives the government too much power over you.

[Workingman]

As Suff says I carried one 24/7 in the RAF and with other companies... it was no big deal.

You learn to look after them and not put them through the wash. The newer plastic bank cards last forever even though they are in and out of wallets and purses numerous times a day, and they become more robust as as time passes. My latest bank and credit cards are not embossed, as the older ones were, they are laser printed and very flexible.

I do not get the reluctance to carry one. They are all over the place, in various forms, for many workers in many work places anyway - NHS, transport, councils, libraries, supermarkets and shops and so on.

Having said that I am against the all encompassing biometric ones with every bit of information imaginable stored on them - they really are a means of control. The type of cards I mentioned in another post have none of that.

[TheOstrich]

Having said that I am against the all encompassing biometric ones with every bit of information imaginable stored on them - they really are a means of control. The type of cards I mentioned in another post have none of that.

And that is one of my biggest concerns. Earlier attempts to soften the public up for a national ID card have actually stressed the benefits of including your medical records on them (convenient if you're involved in a accident / taken to hospital / allergic and so on) but to my mind, although I understand the benefits, that's TMI of a personal nature stored on a credit-sized card.

Much of our life has become digitalised already and the pace of it isn't slowing. I'm rather relieved I'll not be around when this Brave New World we're heading for finally arrives.

[Workingman]

Some years ago a consultant sent me for an MRI scan even though I told him about the piece of metal embedded in the muscle behind my eye due to an accident - he was convinced it would be OK. On the appointed day I made it clear to the MRI staff that I was not happy and they sent me for X-rays before proceeding. There in the slides, clearly seen, was the lump of bearing metal and so the MRI was cancelled.

Since that day I have worn a dog tag stating DO NOT MRI and on the back it has my full name, NI number and NHS number. There is no directly sensitive information, but the authorities can access my records from that information by other means if I was, say, in an accident or unconscious. It will be a good combination if simple ID cards ever get introduced without all the biometric nonsense.

[medsec222]

i would be prepared to accept an ID card if it would prevent or drastically cut down on electoral fraud.

[Suff]

It will be a good combination if simple ID cards ever get introduced without all the biometric nonsense.

Ah but there's the rub. When I was working in Belgium for a bank on a security project, they told me the best way to ensure identity was to use the ID Card. It had full biometric info, carried significant government info and an encryption key for decrypting government secure messages. Banks were beginning to piggy back on the government encryption and the government was using this as justification to add more and more to the card.

As for voting.

Voting in Belgium is done by paper voting or electronic voting on a computer depending on the place of voting. A few weeks before the actual election, every Belgian older than 18 receives a voting card with the details of where and when to vote. The voting cards are sent by the municipal administration to all of the municipality's inhabitants based on the national population register. Voting bureaus are usually in schools. On polling day, always a Sunday, a volunteer at the voting bureau checks the voter in. After taking the voter's electronic identity card and voting card, the volunteer issues a magnetic card to operate the voting machine. After the voter has finished, the volunteer verifies that the magnetic card was used to cast a valid vote, then returns the voter's ID and voting card, now stamped as proof of having voted.

There is no such thing as a simple and non biometric ID Card. There is the soft sell to get you onto the cards than the ratchet clauses to add more and more to them. Once they are in you're never getting them out, once they are in, each successive government adds more and more to them.

It is the way of the world.

[Kaz]

I have no problem with carrying an ID card, I have thought they would be a good idea for a while. If the government are going to insist on photo ID for voting, surely it's their duty to provide free photo ID, so as not to disenfranchise certain people. Unless that's their objective, of course

[cruiser2]

I have still got my ID card--yes it is a piece of card, not plastic, which was issued in 1939 when the war started.
The ID is four letters and four numbers which I sometimes use a a pass word.

Wonder if I will need one when I get to the Pearly gates.
My wife was sent a postal vote after she had died. I returned it having written in large red letters that she had died.

Have recently voted online for new committee members of an organisation. You have to give certain information before a long pass word is sent
so you can complete the voting form. Seems to be a good secure system.

[Workingman]

There is no such thing as a simple and non biometric ID Card.

Of course there is - you had one in the army. And many ordinary workers have them as work pass standard issue, as I mentioned earlier. They are not biometric and often not tied to any digital database. They just quickly identify that the person is who they claim to be.

Your examples are from the extreme end of ID. One is a commercial enterprise when working on a security project, the other is how one country operates. Neither has to be the case for a simple "show and verify" ID card in the routine run of things.