More debate needed on ID cards, think-tank warns
Saturday, 8 December 2007
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The Government should launch a "serious renewed debate" on ID cards or scrap the scheme, a thinktank report says.
Researchers from Demos warned that the identity card project was launched without adequate public engagement, and said more consideration should be given to what information the cards carry and how they will be used.
The call came in a report entitled The New Politics of Personal Information, which found that the average economically-active British adult now has details recorded on 700 databases.
The researchers Peter Bradwell and Niamh Gallagher found that the public, far from resisting Big Brother-style surveillance, were largely happy to share their personal information through social networking websites, supermarket loyalty schemes, public transport swipe-cards and CCTV cameras.
But they said people were gradually becoming uneasy about the consequences of losing control of their personal data and called on the Government to act to ensure greater protection.
The recommendations come less than a month after HM Revenue and Customs lost two computer discs containing the data of 25 million people and amid growing fears people using the internet are leaving themselves wide open to identity fraud.
In the wake of the security breach, the Prime Minister announced checks on the handling of data by every government department and agency. Gordon Brown also pledged that new powers would be given to Information Commissioner Richard Thomas to enable spot-checks on public bodies holding personal information.
Speaking at the launch of yesterday's report, Mr Thomas welcomed the change, but said he found it "extraordinary" that his office had no similar powers to carry out unannounced inspections of private companies.
The report says that a public debate on ID cards would be a good way to ensure that issues surrounding the protection and dissemination of personal information are properly aired.
"There needs to be more open consideration of what kind of information the cards would hold, why, and in what circumstances they will be used."
A spokesman for the Identity and Passport Service said that ID cards were "one of the most consulted-upon areas of public policy", adding that more consultation was planned as the scheme is rolled out.
