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GET 'EM WHILE THEY'RE YOUNG
The Mirror [1] this week revealed that over 700,000 schoolchildren have
been fingerprinted without the prior consent, and sometimes even
knowledge, of their parents. Although not directly linked to the
National Identity Register (NIR), concerns have been raised about who
will have access to data gathered for this and other databases - most
notably the Children's Index, which has been in the spotlight again [2].
As well as riding roughshod over the principle of consent, it appears
that parents are left largely in the dark about which agencies in what
circumstances will have access to their child's information - not just
data derived from their fingerprints, but all associated records.
There has been a worrying proliferation of child-focussed databases in
recent years, as highlighted by Action on Rights for Children(ARCH)'s
recent 'Database Masterclass'[3]. And the recommendation of the Citizen
Information Project (which was quietly merged with the NIR, shortly
after the passing of the Identity Cards Act) that a register of
under-16s be created [4] and 'aligned' with the NIR shows that at least
some in government are actively promoting the notion of cradle-to-grave
surveillance. (See our report on the growing number of children's
databases below)
NO2ID applauds the efforts of concerned parents to draw attention to
the dangers of non-consented capture and sharing of children's data,
and the trivialisation of biometrics in the context of an impending
programme of compulsory national registration. We encourage parents to
check out their new campaign site, LeaveThemKidsAlone, and cast a vote
in the online poll at http://www.leavethemkidsalone.com/poll.htm
References:
[1] http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=17324161&method=ful
l&siteid=94762&headline=fingerprint-scandal-of-700-000-kids--name_page.html
[2] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=392629&in_page_id=1770
[3] http://databasemasterclass.blogspot.com/2006_06_01_databasemasterclass_archive.html
[4] http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=589352006
What's next?
Activ8 launches on the web
The community channel has now launched the Activ8 project online.
Activ8 is a community television
channel set up by the BBC's Action Network. The channel will follow
eight social activists (one of which is NO2ID's national co-ordinator
Phil Booth) and their campaigns on TV, the web and broadband for the
rest of 2006. Towards the end of July, when there are some more videos
on the site, the BBC & the Community Channel will do a more public
launch to the media nationally, regionally and locally. See http://www.communitychannel.org/content/blogcategory/115/101/
The summer is a good time to contact the press
During the summer months the press are often short of news, so an
article for or letter in your local newspaper is very likely to be
published and will pay dividends. Something to emphasise is the changes
in passports in the autumn (compulsory interviews for first time
applicants) so that people can't say they weren't warned. Eventually
all passport applications, including renewals will require an
interview. Letters explaining the Renew for Freedom campaign have often
been published, such as a letter in Kent on Sunday written by Ron Kipps
of Dartford, which concisely set out compulsion linked to passports,
the new interrogation procedure, the insane cost, and the fact you can
renew at any time to postpone the process.
Calling all London based supporters
If you live in or around London please consider helping NO2ID Highbury
on Saturday 8th July at the RISE festival in Finsbury Park. It's a big
event and a great place to promote our campaign. Just an hour on the
stall or distributing leaflets would be greatly appreciated, see the
listing below for more details.
8th July - Luton NO2ID - Town Centre campaigning
Saturday, 8 July at George Street in the town centre from about 11am,
the Luton group will be out to gather yet more
petition signatures & distribute campaign materials in particular
the 'renew for freedom' A5 leaflet. For more details contact luton@no2id.net
8th July - Rise Festival - Higbury NO2ID stall
Saturday July 8th at Finsbury Park. Entrance is free, and the line up
can be found at (http://www.risefestival.org/).
Last year one
campaigner handed out over 100 NO2ID leaflets in about 20 minutes. Come
along to one of the biggest free events in London this summer and help
to spread the word. Please note: a stall has been booked but no written
confirmation has been received yet. For more information contact highbury@no2id.net
11th July - Glasgow NO2ID Meeting
The next meeting of Glasgow NO2ID will be on
Tuesday 11th July at 7:30pm in Mono.
If Mono is unsuitable on the night, we will instead go to Laurie's
across the road. www.glasgow-no2id.org.uk/meeting.html All are welcome!
13th July NO2ID Volunteers Meeting Central London - 'ID cards: bad for your health'
Thursday, 13th July at 7.00pm in the Brockway Hall at Conway Hall, 25
Red Lion Square, London WC1 (nearest tube: Holborn). All are welcome to
NO2ID's next regular volunteers' meeting. The meeting will be on the
theme of ID cards and health. The meeting is free to attend but we will
be asking for donations to help cover the cost of the room hire.
19th July - North Staffs NO2ID Meeting
Wednesday, 19th July at 8pm in the Swan, St. Edward's Street, Leek.
It's very important
that as many people as possible attend as we will be making final
preparations
for our stall at the Leek Show. As this is our first stall, and a
chance for us to get a big audience, we need as many volunteers as
possible to help man the stall so if you can't come to the meeting,
please let us know if you can help man the stall. The Leek Show is on
Saturday 29th July from 9am to 5pm. The Labour Party always have a
stall at the show too. We CAN'T allow them to think that there is
minimal opposition to ID cards and they will if we don't have enough
people there. So, if you can do nothing else for this cause PLEASE help
us run the stall - you need only give an hour. Thank you. For more
information, contact (leek@no2id.net).
What just happened?
Torbay council votes against ID cards
Torbay last week became the 27th local council to pass a motion against
ID cards. The council agreed to affiliate to NO2ID and "only co-operate
with the national identity card scheme
where specifically required to do so by law". A small minority of
councillors suggested that the council was acting outside its remit but
as Jim Camp of Torbay NO2ID points out: "the council is thinking ahead
and calculating the impact of the ID cards
scheme on the citizens of Torbay, citizens whom it has a duty to
represent to the best of its ability". Current Home Office policy is
that every Local Authority
must compile a 'business case' and choose whether to opt in to the ID
cards scheme. The funding for the hardware and software that ID cards
will need will have to come from each council's own budget. Or, to put
it another way, the council tax will have to be increased or services
will have to be cut.
Edinburgh NO2ID hears from passionate MSP
Members of NO2ID Edinburgh were addressed by Colin Fox MSP, leader of
the Scottish Socialist Party(SSP), at a meeting last week(28th June).
The SSP has pledged to support the campaign
and their 6 serving MSPs have said that they will refuse to register
for an
ID card. Mr Fox gave a wide-ranging talk, outlining the
anti-libertarian
practices in British politics today. He said that countering crime was
basically a matter requiring collaboration between communities and the
police. ID cards he said would weaken this collaboration by changing
the presumption of innocence towards one of guilt. The
scheme would be counter-productive and would be brought down by non-cooperation by the public. Quoting Pastor Niemoeller ("..then they
came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me") he said it
was now time to stand against these infringements of individual rights.
Survey on ID cards wants your views
The Future of Identity in the Information Society(FIDIS) has launched a
survey to gauge Europeans’ attitudes to ID cards. The FIDIS website states that: "The EU aims to
facilitate freedom of movement of citizens in Europe with an electronic
ID card. The new electronic ID card system would allow seamless access
to governmental services, no matter where the card is issued. The
system would also hold personal information on all citizens in Europe." FIDIS say that they want to make EU policymakers aware of the
perceptions of EU citizens on whether and how their personal
information is made available to other agencies and states. The survey
can be found online via the FIDIS website (www.fidis.net) though at the time of
going to press the survey was mysteriously closed.
Children: Over Surveilled, Under Protected - the growing number of children's databases
Delegates at the 'Children: Over Surveilled, Under Protected'
conference at the London School of Economics last week (June 27th)
heard about the worrying array of databases used to monitor children.
Terri Dowty of Action on Rights for Children(ARCH) presented an outline
of
a few of the information-sharing systems, these include: School Census,
National Pupil Database(NPD), Connexions, ONSET, Youth Inclusion and
Support Panel Management Information System (YISPMIS), Youth Inclusion
Programme, Junior Youth Inclusion Programme (YIP and Junior YIP),
Prolific and Other Priority Offenders Performance Management System,
RYOGENS (Reducing Youth Offending Generic National Solution), NOTIFY,
Nipper, MERLIN, The Common Assesment Framework, The Integrated
Children's System(ICS). These systems will soon be linked together by
the 'Children's Index', a complete directory of all children from birth
that acts as a central hub connecting all of the other databases.
Consideration is also being given to linking the Children’s Index to
the National Identity Register (NIR) in order to create a single
population register. More details of the conference as well as
presentation materials and podcasts of speakers can be found at http://childrenoversurveilled.lse.ac.uk/programme.htm
Teenage 'entitlement' card delayed
It has been announced that a Department for Education and Skills scheme
to give teenagers a Youth Opportunity Card(YOC) has been delayed. The
card is expected to be delayed because councils lack the technology
infrastructure to support the smart card. The government describes the
card as an "entitlement card", which according to the Youth Matters
green paper: "would provide discounts on a range of things to do and
places to go and could also be topped up by young people and their
parents with money to spend on sports and other constructive
activities". However the Commission for Racial Equality in November
said: "given that the cards would carry a photo and act as proof of
age, we
are concerned that such cards may operate as 'ID-cards' for young
people. This may lead to patterns of discrimination where certain
groups are more likely to be asked to produce their card to verify
identity".
European Commission introduce unnecessary passport regulation
Last week the European Commission announced specifications for the
introduction of fingerprints into passports and other travel documents
issued by EU states. Franco Frattini the commissioner responsible for
'freedom, security and justice' said: "the EU is among the first in the
world issuing passports requirements with a high level of protection
against unauthorised access by providing 'Extended Access Control',
whilst at the same time complying with the recommendations of the
International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in order to ensure
interoperability". The ICAO ePassport standard only requires a
digitised
photograph to be included on a chip. The UK government have repeatedly
claimed that our passports need to have fingerprints and iris scans
added to comply with EU and ICAO requirements. In fact the EU directive
does not apply to the UK, but the government are pressing ahead with
biometric passports on the back of the ID cards Act. The best way to
avoid being fingerprinted and iris scanned is to renew your passport
now (see www.renewforfreedom.org).
The commission's announcement is at http://tinyurl.co.uk/xxg4
Facial Recognition Song available to download
Ed Barocas, legal
director for
the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey has written a song about, of all things - facial
recognition. Barocas is part of 'Eddie B. and the G-Spots' together
with Dave and Jeff Gellis. They perform
comedy song parodies which they describe as "the
melodic equivalent of pelting a subject with rotten tomatoes". You can
download 'Facial Recognition Technology Blues' from the group's website
(www.eddiebandthegspots.com).
"ID" in the news
Whitehall fights ID costs demand - BBC News Online 5/7/06
The government is battling to ensure that estimates of the benefits and
risks of identity cards remain secret. The freedom of information
watchdog ordered the Department of Work and Pensions to publish its
findings about how the cards could fight ID fraud. Now the department
has decided to appeal against the information commissioner's ruling.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5150584.stm
ID and Passport Agency call centre deal up for grabs - Silicon.com 4/7/06
A contract for outsourced call centre services and customer support at
the newly formed Identity and Passport Service (UKIPS) is up for grabs.
UKIPS, a Home Office agency, is inviting expressions of interest from
suppliers to replace the existing deal with MM Teleperformance for the
old UK Passport Service, which expires at the end of October 2007. From
October this year, under new 'Authentication by Interview' passport
rules to cut down on fraud, some 610,000 first-time applicants per year
will have to attend one of a network of 69 local offices around the UK
for a face-to-face interview, and the UKIPS call centres will be
responsible for helping to arrange and book these locations and times.
http://www.silicon.com/publicsector/0,3800010403,39160086,00.htm
Fingerprint Scandal of 700,000 kids - Daily Mirror 3/7/06
Fury erupted yesterday after it emerged an estimated 700,000 children
are being fingerprinted at school. Systems in 3,500 primary school
libraries allow pupils to take out books by scanning their thumb prints
instead of using a card. But campaigners warn the technology is a
massive invasion of privacy and a step towards a "database state".
http://tinyurl.co.uk/ecjm
Man United plan to chip players - Manchester Evening News 30/6/06
A chip the size of a grain of rice could be embedded just under the
skin of stars including Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand and Gary Neville.
Satellites would track its exact position so that United's training
staff can pinpoint players' movements during a match or training.
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/217/217056_man_utd_plan_to_chip_players.html
Call for ID cards to curb teen boozing - Greenock Telegraph 28/6/06
Big-brother style identity cards could be used to stamp out teen
boozing in Inverclyde. Licensing bosses want under-18s to carry proof
of age to ban young drinkers getting served. It's hoped the scheme will
be brought in through secondary schools. "If the uptake is poor,
compulsory ID cards should be brought in. I don't think it would be
well received, but we're not here to win any popularity contests — it's
about facing up to a serious problem.
http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/readstory.php?id=7368
As for ID cards, I predict a riot - The Observer 25/6/06
Close to where I live in London, a NO2ID group has sprung up to
persuade Conservative, Lib Dem and Green councillors to order the local
authority to refuse to co-operate with ID cards. Similar campaigns are
getting going in all kinds of towns - Glossop, Rhyl, Leek, Chippenham -
places you don't normally associate with militant civil disobedience.
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour/comment/0,,1805531,00.html
Pointing the finger at banks - The Banker 5/6/06
In the UK, the government’s roll-out of a national identification
system requires biometric iris and fingerprint data to be used by banks
for customers wishing to open new accounts, to avoid fraud and money
laundering. So why do so many banks object to using biometrics with
their customers?
http://www.thebanker.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/4054/Pointing_the_finger_at_banks.html
US: Workers Sue Union Pacific Over ID Theft - Associated Press 4/7/06
Omaha, Neb - Concerns about identity theft prompted a group of nine
Union Pacific Corp. employees to sue the nation's largest railroad over
the way it uses Social Security numbers to identify employees. The
company said in May that a computer with names and Social Security
numbers of 30,000 current or retired Union Pacific employees had been
stolen from a personnel employee on April 29.
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.asp?Feed=AP&Date=20060704&ID=5842282
US: ACLU objects as two companies offer 'mind reading' technology to government - The RAW Story 28/6/06
Two private companies have announced that they will begin to offer "lie
detection" services using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI),
as early as this summer. Experts in the field have told the ACLU that
the science to back up any reliable use of fMRI as a "lie detector" or "mind reader" simply does not exist. At most, correlations have been
observed between certain brain patterns and particular, highly
controlled behaviors produced in laboratory experiments.
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/ACLU_objects_as_two_companies_offer_0628.html
(Please send me any items of interest you encounter -
Editor(newsletter@no2id.net) )
What you can do
You can help us by:
1. Helping to spread our message
Tell your friends and any organisations that you belong to about the
NO2ID campaign and that you are supporting it. Most people are scarcely
aware of the government's ID database project, and few understand the
dangers. Feel free to redistribute this newsletter to acquaintances.
2. Joining NO2ID / donating
Please become a NO2ID member, if you have not already done so. Our
thanks go to those that have.
(There's a membership form at http://www.no2id.net/downloads/membForm.pdf)
OR
Donate some money towards campaign expenses.
NO2ID, Box 412, 78 Marylebone High Street, LONDON W1U 5AP
* We also maintain a list of things you can do on our website at http://www.no2id.net/getInvolved/other.php
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