NO2ID Press Release RSS

Telecoms snooper law

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Reports from the Home Office suggest the draft Communications Data Bill contains yet more intrusive measures to snoop and spy on law abiding citizens, perhaps even requiring ISPs or telecoms companies to allow the Home Office direct access to their networks [1].

Responding to issues raised by the Bill, Phil Booth, NO2ID [2] National Coordinator said:

"While there is a place for the interception of telephone and internet communication when properly warranted and authorised by a court in the course of a specific criminal investigation, the idea of a giant monolithic database containing the phone and internet records of every British citizen is as monstrous in principle as it is technically absurd.

"If true, this would effectively short circuit the negligible safeguards that currently exist and provide 1,400 public bodies [3] from the Post Office to the Financial Services Authority with easy access to your data. It would end for all time the entirely reasonable presumption that your phone records and internet use, for which YOU pay, would be kept private.

"Not only another catastrophic blow to privacy, liberties and freedom from state interference, this - alongside cradle-to-grave monitoring through the children's database, ContactPoint, and the National Identity Scheme - will

be another founding stone in building all that is required for a surveillance state."

-ENDS-

Notes for editors:

1) Much like the 'Carnivore' system developed by the FBI in the US.

2) NO2ID is the UK-wide non-partisan campaign against ID cards and the database state. See http://www.no2id.net/dbstate.php for a list of 'database state' initiatives that NO2ID is actively opposing.

3) The government appears to want to avoid the controversy caused by giving, e.g. Local Authorities surveillance powers under the Regulation of Investigative Powers Act (RIPA).

For further information, or for immediate or future interview, please contact:
Phil Booth (National Co-ordinator, national.coordinator@no2id.net) on 07974 230 839
Guy Herbert (General Secretary, general.secretary@no2id.net) on 07956 544 308
Michael Parker (Press Officer, press.officer@no2id.net) on 07773 376 166

Data Sharing Review "profoundly disappointing"

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Expressing profound disappointment at the far-from-radical recommendations of the Data Sharing Review [1] by the Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, and Director of the Wellcome Trust, Dr Mark Walport, NO2ID's National Coordinator, Phil Booth, said:

"The Review all but ignores the database state yet strangely [2] aims to bolster the powers of the Information Commissioner's Office and seeks to make life more convenient for medical researchers.

"This hasn't really done anything to protect ordinary individuals, and leaves the door wide open for your personal information to be further debauched by government."

"All the spin is about a minor change to the electoral register - their 'big change' is to cut down junk mail, but what about the very real dangers of the National Identity Register [3], ContactPoint [4] and the NHS Secondary Uses Service [5]?"

-ENDS-

Notes for editors:

1) http://www.justice.gov.uk/reviews/datasharing-intro.htm - full report available for download from this location at noon.

2) We refer you again to the authors of the report...

3) The linked databases at the heart of the National Identity Scheme ('ID cards'). Fifty *categories* - not items - of information on everyone over the age of 16, including fingerprints and a detailed log of every ID check that will record, e.g. bank details, your GP or clinic visits, and provide convenient links to other sensitive personal information.

4) A database of details on every child in the country and their parents or carers, to be accessible to over 300,000 people working in social services. The government's own auditors have stated that ContactPoint could never be made fully secure.

5) Medical information shared via a BT-run service, Although supposedly anonymised, medical information is currently being shared across Primary Care Trusts - and in some cases with commercial companies - 'in the open', i.e. in personally identifiable form.

6) NO2ID is the UK-wide non-partisan campaign against ID cards and the database state. See http://www.no2id.net/dbstate.php for a list of 'database state' initiatives that NO2ID is actively opposing.

For further information, or for immediate or future interview, please contact

Phil Booth (National Co-ordinator, national.coordinator@no2id.net)on 07974 230 839,

Guy Herbert (General Secretary, general.secretary@no2id.net) on 07956 544 308, or

Michael Parker (Press Officer, press.officer@no2id.net) on 07773 376 166.

Poll: public is 2 to 1 against the idea behind ID cards

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Public opinion is split 50:50 on ID cards if asked a fair question; but ask people about the database that is the raison d'�tre for the National Identity Scheme, and opinion is two-to-one against. These are the findings of an ICM poll conducted for NO2ID last week [1].

NO2ID [2] has been periodically asking the identical unbiased question about "ID cards" since June 2005 � an approach described by UK Polling Report as "admirable". During that time support for the idea has steadily declined to 48%.

But as an experiment this time round they asked a second question, also designed to be fair, which did not mention ID cards but did describe the National Identity Register on which the scheme is to be built. The result? 63% of the public is opposed to the substance of the National Identity Scheme.

NO2ID recommends people look very closely at how the Home Office gets its nominally positive ratings for the scheme in its 'tracking studies' [3].

Phil Booth, NO2ID National Coordinator, said:

"Unlike the IPS we can't afford to waste money on spin dressed-up as a poll. We care what people really think. We are trying to persuade them, not con them.

"What's fascinating here is that we asked the public two different-seeming questions that are about the same thing. One aspect, the card itself, bothers substantial numbers of people but not a big majority. But the more important part of the scheme � government collecting and collating information about us for its convenience � is just massively unpopular.

"Campaigning experience suggests that the more people know about the ID scheme, the more they dislike it. Now here is some solid evidence that it is true."

-ENDS-

Notes for editors:

1) ICM Research interviewed a random sample of 1007 adults aged 18+ by telephone between June 25th-26th 2008. Interviews were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults. ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules. Further information at www.icmresearch.co.uk

Given the statement "The Government has proposed the introduction of identity cards that, in combination with your passport, will cost around £93", 48% of people said they thought this was a good idea, 46% said it was a bad idea.

Asked "You may have heard that the government intends to collect information about citizens and store it on large computer systems which can then be used for a wide range of purposes. Do you think storing information and sharing it between different parts of government in this way is a... [good / bad idea]?"

Only 35% of people thought this was a good idea, while 63% thought it was a bad idea.

2) NO2ID is the UK-wide non-partisan campaign against ID cards and the database state. See http://www.no2id.net/dbstate.php for a list of some of the �database state� initiatives that NO2ID is actively opposing.

3) The Home Office 'tracking studies' do not conform to BPC standards. They do not publish what questions were asked � NO2ID only managed to get copies using the Freedom of Information Act. Nor do they publish the results data.

For further information, or for immediate or future interview, please contact

Phil Booth (National Co-ordinator, national.coordinator@no2id.net) on 07974 230 839
Guy Herbert (General Secretary, general.secretary@no2id.net) on 07956 544 308, or
Michael Parker (Press Officer, press.officer@no2id.net) on 07773 376 166.

Brown does not understand his own policies - NO2ID

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:00:01 GMT

The Prime Minister's response to the debate about civil liberties sparked by David Davis's resignation is to give a speech on 'Security and Liberty' to an invited audience in order to repeat the same unsubstantiated assertions he has made before about policies, and seeking once more to link the unpopular National Identity Scheme to anti-terrorism measures.

Phil Booth, NO2ID National Coordinator, said:

"Perhaps Gordon Brown simply doesn't get IT. He says he is satisfied the ID scheme 'minimises information', when the reverse is the case - it is designed as a mass-surveillance scheme like nothing else on earth.

"Terrorism is a complete red herring. But on this showing, the question has to be how much ministers have deliberately misled the public, and how much they have misled themselves. Who in government has got a clue?"

-ENDS-

Notes for editors:

1) http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Politics/documents/2008/06/17/SecurityLibertySpeech.pdf
- Gordon Brown's IPPR speech in full.

2) NO2ID is the UK-wide non-partisan campaign against ID cards and the database state. Scroll down http://www.no2id.net for a list of 'database state' initiatives that NO2ID is actively opposing.

For further information, or for immediate or future interview, please contact

"Minimisation of Data" ought to finish secretive ID-Scheme

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Privacy campaign NO2ID [1] welcomed the publication today of the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee report "A Surveillance State?" [2], and pointed out that the report's recommendation that government should adopt a "minimisation of data" principle ought to lead to the scrapping of the National Identity Scheme.

The Committee's is the third official enquiry in four months to raise fundamental objections to the scheme. (The others were the report of Sir James Crosby for the Treasury [3], and the Independent Scheme Advisory Panel of top technology managers [4].)

While it does not re-examine the identity cards proposals in detail (it issued a very critical report as long ago as July 2004[5]), and accepts the existence of the scheme as part of the existing machinery of (potential) surveillance, the Committee does consider the scheme and other government databases among the principal surveillance threats, and its primary recommendation on government handling of personal data is obviously applicable:

"The Government should give an explicit undertaking to adhere to a principle of data minimisation and should resist a tendency to collect more personal information and establish larger databases. Any decision to create a major new database, to share information on databases, or to implement proposals for increased surveillance, should be based on a proven need." (p.7)

The National Identity Register, the database behind ID cards, would facilitate the sharing of personal information held by government. A bewildering variety of purposes have been suggested. But any evidence of need, or of cost effectiveness for those purposes, or any explanation of the intended functions in practice, has been lacking. The Identity and Passport Service is running a consultation exercise ending this month asking the most general questions about what might be wanted from the scheme [6].

Guy Herbert, General Secretary of NO2ID said:

"Minimisation of data is common sense for both privacy and security. A pity then, that the National Identity Scheme offers precisely the opposite. Its whole conception is to join together as much personal information possible and keep it available forever � maximisation of data."

The Government seems to think that if it has made the legislation it doesn't need to explain anything. But grinding on with its mass surveillance database projects in the face of these recommendations would be astonishing arrogance. "

-ENDS-

Notes for editors

1) NO2ID is the UK-wide non-partisan campaign against ID cards and the database state. See http://www.no2id.net/dbstate.php for a list of
'database state' initiatives that NO2ID is actively opposing.

2) A Surveillance Society? � Fifth Report of the Session 2007-2008 (8 June 2008)

3) 'Challenges and Opportunities in Identity Assurance', is available here:
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/media/6/7/identity_assurance060308.pdf
See also: NO2ID commentary "Crosby sets out 10 ID principles � Home Office scheme breaks all of them" (7 March 2008)
http://www.no2id.net/news/pressRelease/release.php?name=Crosby_10

4) The panel consists of top IT experts from large commercial concerns such as Tesco:
http://www.ips.gov.uk/identity/downloads/ISAP_Annual_Report.pdf
See also NO2ID press release: "Buried news: Government advisors savage ID scheme" 7 May 2008 - for more discussion
http://www.no2id.net/news/pressRelease/release.php?name=Buried_news

5) Home Affairs Committee - Fourth Report of the Session 2003-2004 (20th July 2004)
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmhaff/130/130.pdf

6) See Consultation on the Delivery of the National Identity Scheme
https://www.ips.gov.uk/identity/NIS-delivery-plan-2008.asp

For more information, or for immediate or future interview, please contact
Phil Booth (National Coordinator, national.coordinator@no2id.net) on 07974 230 839
Guy Herbert (General Secretary, general.secretary@no2id.net) on 07956 544 308
Michael Parker (Press Officer, press.officer@no2id.net) on 07773 376 166.