Is this the end for ID cards?

[Pharnakes]

Always nice of the government to provide a 0845 number when they lose your data and you rightfully want to know more about it.

OT I know, but this is a nice site for cheapskates like myself

[Kaidonni]

Well, when our government/civil service/whatever loses the records of over 25,000,000 benefit claimants, you know you don't want ID Cards. That thing just SHOULD NOT happen. There isn't even a 'sh*t happens* clause in this - it isn't acceptable at all. Otherwise, terrorists getting their hands on nukes while the USA is over-seeing the whole operation would have to be acceptable, and it isn't (and Jack Bauer would effectively remove the kneecaps of the guilty, incompetent overseers too ...Jack! We need you now! ). So, would I trust anyone in our civil service or government with my data, with ID cards, or DNA? No.

The whole ID card thing to stop terrorism was a farce anyway. It didn't stop it in Spain. And I'm assuming to get an ID card, you have to prove who you are in the first place...so, er, I'm assuming it wouldn't be hard for terrorists to get them, then. There's this thing called deception...don't know if our government have heard of it (they do it all the time, but not very well, seemingly...). So, ID cards would be useless...the only way they could be of any use would be if the moment you applied, you were found out to be a terrorist - and then, it'd still be pointless because...why don't they just run those checks normally, instead of on such a special occasion? Would they really need to waste billions on a piece of paper when they could find the bad guys out without all that malarky?

I mean, the whole having to prove who you are to get an ID in the first place...LOL...if someone can get one, then there's NOTHING stopping them from committing a terrorist attack. They got the ID...so, this system is useless anyway. Anyway, like I said...one word - Spain.

[Husar]

I don't really see the connection to ID cards, there's no bank information on my ID card and to give me benefits the government will still need to store my bank details even if I have no ID card.
What I do find weird are:
1. electronic ID cards
2. that bank accounts can be charged without a proper PIN, TAN or written allowance from the account owner, makes you wonder why I, being the owner of the account have to type in all that stuff while criminals can just go and say "hey, give us money" and get it
3. if 2 isn't as I said then why are people worried about losing money?
4. 3 does not mean that I'd like criminals to have all my data
5. I'm in the telephone book, who is not?

[Kaidonni]

What I meant was, would you trust the same establishment with running an ID card scheme if they screw up so monumentally as to lose the records of 25m benefit claimants, while blatantly violating the Data Protection Act? You just don't violate it unless it's either deliberate, or you need shooting, and everyone who employed you the same. A real business would go under and be ripped apart, the managers and other high-up individuals finding their butts on a platter in front of a very serious, unimpressed judge (well...not in the UK, maybe a country with judges who aren't idiots who hand out lenient sentences to murderers, rapists, etc etc...and proceed to harp on about the Human Rights of the criminals).

In days past, those guilty would have been lined up against the wall and shot at dawn by firing squad, or tortured in the most horific way and then executed...

[macsen rufus]

5. I'm in the telephone book, who is not?

Me, for one...

[Husar]

In days past, those guilty would have been lined up against the wall and shot at dawn by firing squad, or tortured in the most horific way and then executed...

In days past you might have had a hard time finding 25 million people in Britain or trying to get a medium to hold all that data that didn't require several trucks to transport around.
Maybe they'll soon save the data on disks that are so small they're invisible that will certainly help since the bad guys won't even see it lying around.

Me, for one...

I knew there would be at least one, I have a few more suspects but in the end it's a matter of preference, if you hate the bureaucracy and the state and some companies having your data for this and that, there are always those good old ways of handling government and stuff as practised in certain third world countries where noone really cares whether or not you exist, much less what you bank data is.

[Ronin]

I don't really see the connection to ID cards, there's no bank information on my ID card and to give me benefits the government will still need to store my bank details even if I have no ID card.
What I do find weird are:
1. electronic ID cards
2. that bank accounts can be charged without a proper PIN, TAN or written allowance from the account owner, makes you wonder why I, being the owner of the account have to type in all that stuff while criminals can just go and say "hey, give us money" and get it
3. if 2 isn't as I said then why are people worried about losing money?
4. 3 does not mean that I'd like criminals to have all my data
5. I'm in the telephone book, who is not?

2- That is only possible with a credit card......just don´t get one....I do fine with just an charge card.
5- I´m not...my phone number is registered as confidential.

[Papewaio]

Rule of Blame:
Never assign maliciousness where stupidity will do.

Rule of Bureaucracy:
Never hire a burecrat who isn't stupid.

[AntiochusIII]

Rule of Blame:
Never assign maliciousness where stupidity will do.

Rule of Bureaucracy:
Never hire a burecrat who isn't stupid.

Unfortunately stupidity is dangerous...and very much exploitable by malice.

[English assassin]

Sounds like a problem with the civil service and at the junior end of the scale.

Nope http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle2937217.ece

REVENUE officials have been routinely posting out people’s confidential data in bulk and without proper security, a Sunday Times investigation has found. It undermines Gordon Brown’s claim that the loss of 25m child benefit records was the fault of a lone junior official.

The prime minister last week blamed the junior civil servant for the loss of two computer discs containing the personal and financial details of the claimants. He said they had been posted out in a clear breach of rules that all sensitive data in transit should be encrypted.

Revenue officials have admitted that similar personal data for hundreds of thousands of people have routinely been put on CD and sent by post without encryption. The practice has now been quietly stopped.

As for why this is Brown's fault, that would be merging the depts and demanding big cost savings. According to the media the reason the entite database was sent, when the NAO had only asked for NI numbers, was that it would have been too expensive to strip out the rest of the data.

Sounds to me like government underresourcing made the debacle possible, at a minimum.

A real business would go under and be ripped apart

This is what is twisting my nipples. If I lost the data of all of my clients, my firm would go bust. No question. Just another instance of how its one rule fopr those of us that actually make UK PLCs money, and another rule for the bloated parasites who feed on it.