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TheDatabase

What information will be stored?

The Identity Cards Bill lists around 50 categories of information to be recorded in the National Identity Register database:

including

• name, date of birth, address
• Previous addresses in the United Kingdom and elsewhere;
• Times of residency at different places in the United Kingdom or elsewhere;
• Photograph, fingerprints and any other specified biometric identifying information
• National Identity Number, National Insurance Number, driving licence number, passport number, and the numbers of any other documents that the government decides to record.

Also: details of when & where an identity check has been carried out on you, and to which organisation or person the information has been given to.

This is much more information than is necessary to verify identity - in fact, it could add up to a detailed profile of your life!

The Identity Cards Bill gives the government total freedom to add even more types of personal information to the Register - what about DNA? your medical records? what books you take out of the library? your sexuality? This government might not go so far, but who's to say a future government wouldn't?

Who will have access to your information?

The security services, the police, the Inland Revenue, Customs & Excise, and all government departments are specifically mentioned in the Identity Cards Bill.

But it also gives government the power to grant access to the Register to ANYONE they choose to.

Dangers of data-sharing

The wide range of information to be stored in the National Identity Register opens the door to data-sharing between it and other government databases.

Technology | Biometrics | Insecurity

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