Monday, September 5, 2005
UK Criminologist: National ID cards don't fight crime
Britain -- where Londoners are photographed an average of 300 times/day by CCTV cameras -- is considering a plan to further erode its citizens' privacy with a mandatory national ID card (see this pledge if you want to refuse to register and this pledge if you want to help fund the defense of people who refuse).
This lucid article about a criminologist's findings explains why ID cards will not stem criminality, serving only to punish the innocent. The criminologist, Dr Emily Finch of the University of East Anglia, will present her findings to the British Association for the Advancement of Science conference.
'The paradox of identity and identity theft', says Dr Finch, 'is that we think the way to prevent one person impersonating another is to fix identity more firmly to a particular individual with, for example, biometrics.Interview Link (Thanks, David!)'However, the link between me and the card I hold depends on my initial application for the card being reliable. And at the moment, there is no way to ensure that's the case.
'The more we try to fix ID on one person, the more information we demand from each person to identify them. But the more personal information that is available, the more vulnerable it is to being appropriated by fraudsters,' she says.
Update: Damien sez, "Dr. Finch is giving her talk in Trinity College Dublin on this tomorrow Wedn 7th of Sept in the Hamilton Building. Time : 12.45-13.45, Entry Fee: €7.00"
posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:22:33 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments
