 US wants to be able to access Britons' ID cards
Try £300 ($540), at least for the UK ID card. Then add millions of
man-hours (= money) spent over the next few years chasing up
refusniks, correcting costly mistakes, and trying to make a colossal
IT system work accurately enough to be useful. It has all the makings
of a giant corporate money-grab, with the man in the street picking up
the tab.
"Chrissy Cruiser" <doublebreasted@mail.com> wrote in message
news:1iy70n3yaq6lh$.1802ap3vrbopl.dlg@40tude.net.. .
> Let's see now. REAL ID Card is going international (what a
> surprise), will
> cost $250 +/- to replace driver's license( I got that one right
> too),
> passports with RFID chips (the biometry so the card is
> insecure) and
> it fails 30% of the time. And now a Trusted Traveller Card (of
> course you
> have to give up all your personal info to get one) so they don't
> mistaken
> you for a terrorist like Cat Stevens.
>
> So much for "rapid processing".
>
>
> On Sat, 28 May 2005 03:32:23 +1200, Geoff Blackmore wrote:
>
>> US wants to be able to access Britons' ID cards
>>
>> 27.05.05 1.00pm
>>
>> by Kim Sengupta
>>
>> The United States wants Britain's proposed identity cards to have
>> the same
>> microchip and technology as the ones used on American documents.
>>
>> The aim of getting the same microchip is to ensure compatability in
>> screening terrorist suspects. But it will also mean that
>> information
>> contained in the British cards can be accessed across the Atlantic.
>>
>> Michael Chertoff, the newly appointed US Secretary for Homeland
>> Security,
>> has already had talks with the UK Home Secretary, Charles Clarke,
>> and the
>> Transport Secretary, Alistair Darling, to discuss the matter.
>>
>> Mr Chertoff said yesterday that it was vital to seek compatibility,
>> holding
>> up the example of the "video war" of 25 years ago, when VHS and
>> Betamax were
>> in fierce competition to win the status of industry standard for
>> video
>> recording systems.
>>
>> "I certainly hope we have the same chip... It would be very bad if
>> we all
>> invested huge amounts of money in biometric systems and they didn't
>> work
>> with each other. Hopefully, we are not going to do VHS and Betamax
>> with our
>> chips. I was one of the ones who bought Betamax, and that's now in
>> the
>> garbage," he said.
>>
>> Mr Chertoff also proposed that British citizens wishing to visit
>> the US
>> should consider entering a "Trusted Traveller" scheme. Under this,
>> they
>> would forward their details to the US embassy to be vetted. If
>> successful,
>> they would receive a document allowing "fast- tracking" through the
>> US
>> immigration system.
>>
>> A pilot scheme will start within a few months between the US and
>> the
>> Netherlands, allowing Dutch visitors to use a Trusted Traveller
>> card to
>> enter the US without being subjected to further questioning or
>> screening.
>>
>> Britain is one of 27 countries whose citizens do not need visas to
>> enter the
>> US if they intend to stay less than 90 days. The American
>> government has
>> said it wants 27 to issue new passports by 26 October this year
>> containing a
>> computer chip and a digital photograph.
>>
>> Mr Chertoff said compatability and the checking system was intended
>> purely
>> to track down "terrorists and criminals" and the main aim was to
>> provide a
>> "fair and reasonable system".
>>
>> US diplomatic sources stated later that Washington did not wish to
>> interfere
>> in the domestic affairs of other countries.
>>
>> "When we screen based on names, we're screening on the most
>> primitive and
>> least technological basis of identification - it's the most
>> susceptible to
>> misspelling, or people changing their identity, or fraud," he said.
>>
>> The scheme will also, say diplomats, ease confusion over who
>> exactly
>> constitutes a suspect. The most high-profile case was that of Yusuf
>> Islam,
>> the singer formerly known as Cat Stevens, who was barred from
>> entering the
>> US because his activities "could be potentially linked to
>> terrorism".
>>
>> The British government is insistent that Mr Islam had no such
>> links.
>> However, this is the latest controversy to surround Britain's
>> proposed
>> combined identity card and passport due to be introduced in three
>> years'
>> time.
>>
>> Rising costs have pushed the cost up to £93 ($238) each after the
>> overall
>> estimated 10-year cost of the project grew from £3.1bn to £ 5.8 bn.
>>
>> There have also been problems over the effectiveness of the
>> biometric
>> technology which is supposed to safeguard the security of the
>> cards. There
>> were also verification problems with 30 per cent of those whose
>> fingerprint
>> was taken duringan enrolment trial of 10,000 volunteers.
>>
>> - INDEPENDENT
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