- cypherpunks-legacy - lists.cpunks.org

<nettime> Britain: Blunkett to legislate for thought crimes and guilt by association
by R. A. Hettinga 29 Apr '04

29 Apr '04

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ID card scheme �2,500 fine threat
by R. A. Hettinga 29 Apr '04

29 Apr '04

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/uk_news/politics/3659355.stm> The BBC Monday, 26 April, 2004, 18:41 GMT 19:41 UK ID card scheme #2,500 fine threat People who refuse to register for the government's planned ID card scheme could face a "civil financial penalty" of up to #2,500, it has emerged. David Blunkett said not making registering a criminal issue would avoid "clever people" becoming martyrs. And he promised strict limits on the type of information stored on ID cards. Under Monday's draft bill, carrying false papers will be a criminal offence but MPs have until 2013 to decide if registration should be compulsory. 'Soft touch' Details of card holders kept on the National Identity Register will include name, address and previous addresses as well as nationality and immigration status. Mr Blunkett also confirmed that people will have the right to see their entry on the register. He said ID cards were needed to prevent the UK becoming a "soft touch" for terrorists. But DNA and other health information would not be included on the cards and there would be an independent regulator to control the type of information they contain. Royal family Legislation is expected to be introduced to Parliament in the autumn, with the first biometric passports, which store fingerprint or iris scan information, issued in 2005 and the first cards carrying fingerprint details in 2007. HOW SCHEME WILL WORK Passport price hike of #35 to meet #3.1bn cost of ID card scheme Postal passport applications would no longer be possible 2008: 80% of economically active population will carry some form of biometric identity document 2013: MPs to vote on whether registration should be compulsory New ID would require people to sit in a "biometric enrolment pod" which photographs them and scans the face and iris Information is recorded on a microchip and in a central database Source: Home Office Ministers will make the final decision on compulsory registration by 2013, as detailed in the government's original timetable published in November. By that time, Mr Blunkett expects 80% of the population to hold biometric identification either in the form of a passport, a driving licence or a voluntary ID card. Asked whether members of the Royal Family would be required to apply for a card if compulsion is introduced, Mr Blunkett said: "We are all subjects and citizens." Illegal working A trial of identity card technology was launched on Monday involving 10,000 volunteers. Ministers believe that as well as fighting terrorism, the cards will help to crack down on ID fraud, human trafficking and illegal working, as well as stopping people exploiting health and welfare services. Mr Blunkett claimed the biometric system would make UK ID cards impossible to forge - unlike cards used elsewhere in Europe. Safeguards Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said: "I would much rather see the #3bn that's going to be incurred in looking at better intelligence". Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said the Tories backed the idea of ID cards but said safeguards had to be put in place to prevent the misuse of personal information. The draft Bill sets out proposals for a national identity register to hold details of all 60 million people in the UK. This will enable a person's identity to be authenticated when they produce their card. The legislation also sets out safeguards to prevent government officials from misusing the data. As part of a large-scale test of the equipment, volunteers are having biometric details recorded, involving facial scans, iris scans and fingerprints. Trials are beginning at the UK Passport Service's London HQ on Monday, with further trials to be held in Leicester, Newcastle and Glasgow The biometric checks will become compulsory for anyone applying for, or renewing, passports from 2007. Biometrics will also be introduced into driving licences later. If cards are made compulsory, they will have to be produced to access a range of public services including the NHS and benefits. The estimated #3.1bn cost of introducing the scheme will be met by increasing the cost of passports. Civil rights campaign group Liberty said the government was effectively introducing an identity tax. Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti said there were privacy implications, while no government had yet shown itself competent to manage such databases. The Home Affairs select committee said it would be placing the draft bill under close scrutiny. As part of the inquiry, the committee will take evidence from the Home Secretary David Blunkett MP on 4 May and will also be calling for written submissions on the draft bill as part of the process of pre-legislative scrutiny. People who want to take part in the trial should send an email to trial(a)mori.com. BIOMETRICS OPTIONS Facial scanning: A camera with appropriate software records face contours and converts them into code. A computer processes the data and checks against stored record. Iris imaging: Software scans a digital image of the iris to compare its unique pattern with all those stored. Fingerprinting: A scanner reads the ridge patterns and compares the converted code with those on a database. -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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message, but also test
by Ryan Lackey 29 Apr '04

29 Apr '04

I have two questions: 1) Does anyone have actual performance measurements of ZKS from when it was operational/at peak, in terms of bandwidth, MTU, latency, and jitter? Is there a good way to quantify just how far from "acceptable" it was? 2) Does anyone know of any existing reviews of bandwidth cost in multiple jurisdictions (say, per 1Mbps CIR international terrestrial), as well as electricity (per-Kwh)? I'm working on a research report which shows the 5-10 year costs for a few specific businesses in as many different locations and jurisdictions as possible, since otherwise it's almost impossible to quantify how much "better" a jurisdiction is than any other. I know bandwidth costs for all the markets I actually care about, but I'd like to flesh this out to account for more individual countries. The problem is the bandwidth numbers I have are public as well as very aggressively negotiated, and there's usually a spread of 3-10x between them, so I'd rather not have to go through that level of negotiation for any additional data points. (some people have been sending to cypherpunks(a)metacolo.com vs. cypherpunks(a)cypherpunks.metacolo.com, which was causing a bunch of cypherpunks mail to accumulate in the catchall spool for metacolo.com. I just added cypherpunks and cypherpunks-* aliases in the metacolo domain as well, so it should work, of which this is a test) (I also subscribed the al-qaeda node, and will probably finish setting up the spamfiltered version of the list, as well as passing the back archives through the same archiving software as current archives, and search-indexing them, next time I get bored) -- Ryan Lackey [RL960-RIPE AS24812] ryan(a)venona.com +1 202 258 9251 OpenPGP DH 4096: B8B8 3D95 F940 9760 C64B DE90 07AD BE07 D2E0 301F _______________________________________________ cypherpunks mailing list cypherpunks(a)cypherpunks.metacolo.com http://cypherpunks.metacolo.com/mailman/listinfo/cypherpunks

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test 2
by Ryan Lackey 29 Apr '04

29 Apr '04

-- Ryan Lackey [RL960-RIPE AS24812] ryan(a)venona.com +1 202 258 9251 OpenPGP DH 4096: B8B8 3D95 F940 9760 C64B DE90 07AD BE07 D2E0 301F

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BBC on all-electronic Indian elections
by Graham Lally 29 Apr '04

29 Apr '04

Current report: <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3641419.stm> The tech: <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3493474.stm> Bit scant on details.. anyone know anything more about how the machine (/system) "is fully tamper-proof"? .g -- "I Me My! Strawberry Eggs"

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Sinners help
by Sasha K. Watson 28 Apr '04

28 Apr '04

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Id Cards 'Will Protect Youngsters from Paedophiles'
by R. A. Hettinga 28 Apr '04

28 Apr '04

Horseman #1, Terrorists: Check. Horseman #2, Pedophiles: Check. Next? Cheers, RAH --------- <http://news.scotsman.com/print.cfm?id=2844122&referringtemplate=http%3A%2F%…> print close Tue 27 Apr 2004 2:47am (UK) Id Cards 'Will Protect Youngsters from Paedophiles' By James Lyons, Political Correspondent, PA News Identity cards will help keep youngsters safe from perverts, Education Secretary Charles Clarke claimed today. Cards containing personal information like fingerprints would make it more difficult to side-step checks, said Mr Clarke. That was just one of the benefits of the controversial scheme, outlined yesterday, he was telling a Commons select committee. The controversial move could also save money and stamp out fraud, his evidence to the Home Affairs committee shows. In a written submission released ahead of this afternoon's hearing, Mr Clarke wholeheartedly backs the scheme. "I am very much in favour of identity cards not only because of the broad benefits to the UK such as tackling illegal working, preventing identity fraud and theft but because of the significant benefits that I believe that ID cards would bring the work of my department and its agencies," he said. Mr Clarke's appearance before the committee comes after Cabinet colleague David Blunkett produced draft proposals yesterday. People who refuse to register will not be jailed but face a fine of up to #2,500 under the Home Secretary's plans. Mr Blunkett said did not want to give opponents the opportunity to become "martyrs". The draft Identity Cards Bill allows the creation of a National Identity Register of up to 60 million UK residents. This will be linked to "biometric" cards carrying features including facial recognition, iris images and fingerprints. This biometric technology will be incorporated into existing identification documents, such as passports and driving licences. The first documents with facial recognition are due in 2005, and fingerprint details are expected to be added from 2007. People who do not need passports or driving licences will be able to apply for a "plain" ID card. Funding the introduction of the scheme will come from hikes in the cost of passports and driving licences. A combined passport/ID card will cost an estimated #77, a combined driving licence/ID card #73 and a "plain" card around #35. There will be concessions for the elderly and poor, with all 16-year-olds issued with their first card free of charge. Initially, the cards will be voluntary but they are expected to be made compulsory around 2013, by which time 80% of adults should already be carrying biometric ID. Any switch to a universal card would by made by an Order, subject to the approval of both Houses of Parliament, but new primary legislation would not be required. New criminal offences for the possession of false identity documents will be created, with a maximum sentence of 10 years jail. If they are made compulsory, cards will have to be produced to access a range of public services, including non-emergency treatment on the NHS and benefits. Latest News: http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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Oppenheimer
by R. A. Hettinga 28 Apr '04

28 Apr '04

Apparently someone doesn't know how to use the cypherpunks address... Forwarded without comment. Cheers, RAH ------- --- begin forwarded text

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Re: cypherpunks-digest V1 #13260
by Tim Benham 28 Apr '04

28 Apr '04

> Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 19:43:17 +0000 > From: Justin <justin-cypherpunks(a)soze.net> > Subject: Re: Fact checking > > Thomas Shaddack (2004-04-28 18:32Z) wrote: > > What won't hurt could be making them liable for their promises, as they > > can be considered to be a contract with the voters. With specific > > penalties for not delivering the results in the specified timeframe. > > Presidents don't pass laws. Presidential campaigns would be reduced to > issues that are mutable (vulnerable?) to executive orders. > > Individual candidates for federal office can't pass laws either. You > want to hold a Senator liable when his compatriots (even if they form > the majority) don't support everything your senator supports? > > Nobody who understands the basics of U.S. government construction could > possibly believe that a candidate's "promise" is a guarantee. It is > merely a statement of ideology. > > What then, consequences for not "attempting" to effect promises? Who's > to judge? You could make giving enforceable promises an option for candidates -- something like "If I can't cut taxes in my first term I will eat my hat" or "... I'll owe everyone with a voting receipt with my name on it $100". Then there'd be pressure on candidates to boost their credibilty by making enforceable promises instead of "empty" ones. Secondly you could get around the problems induced by the labyrinthine checks and balances of the US system by tying the liability to measurable behaviors. The president either vetos a certain bill or fails to; a senator or representative either introduces a certain bill or fails to. As long as the bill is specifically identifiable in advance there isn't a great deal of wriggle room. A third alternative is to remove the politiican from the loop. At the same time you vote for candidates, you vote for propositions which become law if approved by a majority of those voting. The problem is who gets to decide what's proposed. Alternatively groups of candidates (e.g. parties) could be able to codify their promises as bills before the election. If a enough candidates who subscribed to the relevant platform get elected, then they're deemed to have voted for the bill already in their official capacity as senator or whatever. cheers, Tim

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Re: Driver's certificates: Logic meets the streets
by Major Variola (ret) 28 Apr '04

28 Apr '04

At 09:46 AM 4/27/04 -0400, R. A. Hettinga wrote: >Bredesen has proposed that the state issue a "certificate of driving" to >those who either have temporary, legal documents to work or go to school >here or to those who can prove their identity and residence in Tennessee. > >The certificates cannot be used as legal identification so, for example, >the bearer of a certificate could not use it to board a plane or rent a car. Damn they're stupid in Tenn. Either the cert has identifying information or its useless. If it has identifying info, it can be used as an "ID". Regardless of some yokel's fiat.

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