Byrne explains the UK's wondrous, biometric, ID card future
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Count them in, count them out, count them all about... Immigration Minister Liam Byrne this week unveiled - to a certain amount of derision - his vision of the ID Card scheme as some sort of 21st Century equivalent of the 19th Century railway network or the 20th Century national electricity grid. It will be pervasive, and in 20 years time it will be a great British institution, "part of the fabric of British life."â¦
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British Prime Minister Tony Blair won a key vote Monday in his bid to reintroduce identity cards, seen by the government as a key weapon in its anti-terror campaign.
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Prints might just be needed for 'special' groups a key component of the UK ID card scheme, the central database of fingerprints, may be abandoned, according to a leaked Home Office document obtained by the Observer. The document doesn't suggest entirely scrapping fingerprints, but instead suggests that their value should be assessed for each group of the population enrolled.â¦
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After signatures, fingerprints and iris recognition, 3-D face maps encoded onto ID cards and passports are unveiled today. The ground-breaking system of recording biometric information could be the key to our security.
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The scientist who invented DNA fingerprinting two decades ago has warned that the huge expansion of the British national database, which now contains details of 2.5 million criminals, could
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The British government says that forgery of their new biometric passports is inconceivable, but a security expert has demonstrated a successful crack of the embedded RFID chip and its info. And he did it without taking the document out of its mailing envelope.
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The British government forged ahead with plans to introduce identity cards as part of its drive against terrorism after defeating a revolt in parliament.
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Britain&#39;s Prime Minister Tony Blair holds his Biometric card at the Passport Office in central London, Monday Oct. 25, 2004. Blair visited the Passport Office who are undertaking a Biometrics Enrollment trial
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What do you mean when you say 'plan'? The agency responsible for UK's police databases has insisted there are no plans to give overseas law-enforcement agencies automated access to British biometrics. Not yet, anyway.â¦
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He's artful, but lacking in detail David Cameron, the straight-talking public relations executive who runs the Conservative party, gave the reasons why he opposes ID Cards yesterday.â¦
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That plastic card, the one with the lousy photo that's jammed into your wallet or purse, isn't just a license to drive. It's the green light to buy a drink, the ticket to federal benefits, the must-have document to get aboard airplanes. Now it's also the flash point for an argument about how best to balance America's security needs with worries that personal privacy could be swept away.
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NHS patients may get new smart cards controlling access to personal health data.
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Plans for a wider rollout of identity cards to British nationals appear to have been delayed for three years.
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(InfoWorld) - Germany will store digital fingerprints in addition to digital photos in passports as one of several biometric security measures planned toÂ fight organized crime and international terrorism. All new passports issued from November will store two digital fingerprints in an embedded chip, which, since 2005, includes a digital photo, the German Federal Ministry of the Interior said Friday. While fingerprints will be stored exclusively in passport chips, photos will continue to be saved additionally in databases of local authorities. A new amendment gives police and other authorized government officials online access to these databases. Unlike several other countries in Europe and abroad, Germany has no central database for photos or fingerprints of all citizens or for registered foreigners living in the country, and currently lacks plans to establish one, according to a ministry spokeswoman. Centralized data, including photos and fingerprints, exists only for people registered with the police for criminal activity, and for applicants for German visas. Only readers equipped with a new cryptographic protocol can read the passports including both photos and fingerprints. The Extended Access Control system connects the chip and the reader by establishing a secure communications channel over a distance of 10 centimeters to 20 centimeters. Moves by the German government to digitize increased levels of personal data and link databases among authorities have led to an outcry by some groups, including federal and state data privacy commissioners. At a meeting in DÃ¼sseldorf on Friday, the commissioners criticized the government's programs that amass personal data, including telephone records, and its plans to give greater power to police officials to monitor terrorists and other criminals online by allowing them to hack into computers. In 2008, the German government plans new ID cards for all citizens with the same biometric features, according to the spokeswoman. "There are three primary reasons to issue biometric ID cards: to avoid false IDs, strengthen the identification process and also offer an authorization possibility for services such as online purchases," she said. By 2010, Germany hopes to have a new central database containing core data about each citizen and registered inhabitant of the country, according to the spokeswoman. The data includes name, birthday and address but will not contain a photo or fingerprints, she said. In February, the government passed a law allowing security officials in the country to create theÂ largest and most comprehensive pool of personal dataÂ ever amassed in the country. The databases of nearly 40 different agencies, including the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), are now being linked to allow authorities to run searches on suspected individuals and retrieve information within minutes. An expanded index file is being created for suspected terrorists. The file will contain the person's name, bank account number, telephone number, e-mail address, driver's license information and other data, including the names of companies, organizations and other parties associated with the person and linked to terrorist groups. Since the start of this week, law enforcement officials in Germany and Austria have electronic access to each other's criminal fingerprint databases. Since 2006, the countries have shared their DNA databases as one of several measures agreed by some European Union nations under the Treaty of PrÃ¼m in 2005. Â
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Students won't have to wear ID badges after all. Also: Intel makes lasers out of silicon&hellip;.  Microsoft plans a new browser&hellip;. and more.
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Plans for a wider rollout of identity cards to British nationals appear to have been delayed for two years.
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Prime Minister Tony Blair announced plans Monday to introduce high-tech biometric identity cards, saying they could be a significant means of fighting terrorism.