bubbling fondues (Re: NTK now, 2004-04-30)

R. A. Hettinga rah at shipwright.com
Sat May 1 01:57:00 PDT 2004


At 4:48 PM +0100 4/30/04, Dave Green wrote:
>                               bubbling fondues
>
>         Mr Blunkett's publicity campaign to gee Britons to get
>         inky-fingered, red-eyed and funky with their biometric
>         entitlement cards continued this week. "This is about true
>         identity," he said on Breakfast with Frost, in an apparent
>         attempt to win over the Vernor Vinge fans. "Being known,
>         being checkable, being used in order to ensure we know who's
>         in the country, what they're entitled to and whether they're
>         up to no good". And if that first mention of the cards'
>         unique "Santa Claus" capability to discern moral failings
>         in carriers isn't terrifying enough, you really should read
>         the government's new 160 page opus on how they'll be running
>         the show. It's not about the ID cards: it's about the huge
>         centralised biometric database the government is planning to
>         smuggle in on the back of it. Couldn't they just put the
>         biometrics on the card where we can see them, and then store
>         a comparison hash or some other translucent database
>         technique centrally? Of course not. Terrorists would win.
>         Feel free to add your own comments to the consultation,
>         which requires replies by July 20th. And we're *so* sure
>         they'll count all the responses correctly this time.
>         http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/docs3/identitycardsconsult.pdf
>                - consultation. "Vindicated" by bomb plot, apparently:
>         http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3607141.stm
>              - vs http://www.spy.org.uk/spyblog/archives/000251.html
>http://www.libdems.org.uk/index.cfm/page.homepage/section.home/article.6599
>               - why not print them out + carry with you at all times?

-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at 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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