If a certain favourite IT supplier of the UK Government gets the contract to set the ID syetm up then we've a while yet before it'll work and be
implemented
The downside is that it'll still be us, the taxpayers, who will pay the vastly over-inflated price tag after a procurement oversight fails to write
penalty clauses into the contract
I work closely with new Access / Smart card technologies so I'll be following this with interest. I already use smart card technologies in the
workplace for building access / biometric authentication for high security areas and cashless vending. That's fine for a business environment in
order to (attempt) to stop industrial espionage and unauthorised access. It is NOT acceptable to have this in the public domain.
I remember watching part of a speech by Gordon Brown a few weeks ago where he talked at length about the ID card issue and the "benefits". He even
went on to talk about using our fingerprints to pay for goods in a safe and cashless society. Great! every time I spend my money the transaction
will be processed, scrutinised, passed to marketing companies for demographic targeting etc. Who's damn business is it where I spend my money and on
what? The paper money we already have can be wiped out or devalued at the stroke of a pen by some banker as it is, whilst the big boys hoard the
shiny metals that are the real value.
The day is definitely coming, in someones eyes (?) where we will all be catalogued, tracked and scrutinised in everything we do. Anyone voicing
dissent will be put on a watch list, although I am sure this already happens.
This is not purely a British thing but is happening in a lot of places and I'd sure like to know who is really behind it, given it's unpopularity.
The governments we have are just the talking heads and front men for the real power brokers in the world. At least there are still signs of
dissenting countries that hold out. Anyone know what the climate is like in Venezuela?