[ssf] Surveillance State

[zerosevenfour two]

Surveillance State

The UK is leading the way in the development of both state and corporate 
surveillance technologies. The UK has more CCTV cameras than any country in 
the world. Over 300 new ones go up every week. The most advanced CCTV 
Control Centre in the UK, a public/private partnership (in Manchester) can 
provide coverage of the city centre with over 400 cameras and an 18 metre 
(!!) monitor wall which can display from 6 to up to 180 high resolution 
images. All images are recorded and stored for at least 92 days.

Manchester police also have their own surveillance plane. It can stay 
airborne for over 5 hours, is 40% quieter than the helicopter and is the 
first police aircraft in the UK that can send and receive live video images 
in flight. Its equipment includes thermal cameras and ‘moving map’ 
technology.

Communications data is stored for years. Your emails can be read and the 
history of your websurfing analysed, without a court order, by six 
government agencies and the police. Thanks to pressure from the UK, personal 
communications data of the whole population of the European Union are now to 
be stored. Your landline phone can be tapped. Your mobile is a tracking 
device. Your mobile phone company records and stores your geographical 
location every few minutes.

Vehicles can be tracked across the country through number plate recognition 
software - which also allows conjestion charging.

The police now have power to access your NHS records, without having to 
establish that a criminal act may have taken place. Important changes are 
taking place.

We are moving from an age of targeted surveillance to an age of universal 
surveillance. Society is becoming a technological Panopticon. Much like 
Bentham’s 19th century 'ideal' prison in which you can be watched everywhere 
but you can't tell if, right now, you are being watched. Another step in 
this progression will be the introduction of national identity cards.

National Identity Cards

The government wants to introduce a national identity card. Packaging 
identity cards as “entitlement” cards isn’t going to fool anyone.

They are planning to create a high-quality population register of everyone 
‘lawfully’ resident in Britain. National population registers have only been 
previously thought necessary in wartime situations. This new database will 
hold “core data” of every UK resident, who will be assigned a unique 
personal number that can be used across the public sector. The “entitlement” 
card will contain a photo and some kind of biometric information 
(fingerprint or iris scan) which will allow the verification of your 
identity.

Everyone above the age of 16 will be registered and issued with their own 
“entitlement” card which allows them access to social security, health, 
education and other services. You won’t be required to use a card unless you 
wish to work, use the banking or health system, vote, buy a house, or 
receive benefits. The card is planned to be combined with the existing 
photocard driving licenses and the forthcoming passport card. So you will 
also need your “entitlement” card to drive a vehicle or travel abroad.

They say that you won’t have to always carry the card. But once it’s in 
place, you can bet this will change. Radio 4's Today programme incidentally 
revealed that the alleged "entitlement" cards are referred to as ID cards 
internally at the Home Office anyway.

“The issuing of a card does not force anyone to use it, although in terms of 
drivers or passport users, or if services - whether public or private - 
required some proof of identity before expenditure was laid out, without 
proof of identity and therefore entitlement to do it I doubt whether non-use 
of it would last very long.”
David Blunkett

The ID card is not just another piece of plastic.

It is an integral part of a vast national information system.

It is likely to contain four key components. The first is the card itself, 
which can be used for low-level identification purposes such as entering a 
secure building or renting videos. The second is a biometric identifier such 
as a fingerprint or an iris scan, which will be linked to a national 
database. The third is an electronic storage chip, which will contain 
multiple levels of information about the card-holder. The fourth, and most 
significant dimension, is an information matching system based on the card’s 
unique number and a central population database, linked to a wide range of 
government and private sector organisations.

You might be of the opinion that if you’ve nothing to hide, it’ll be quite 
useful. But imagine a card that can carry details of your benefits (that 
often tie you in to being in one place looking for work), your job, your 
driving, drinking and other ‘criminal’offences - plus all your personal 
information. Everyone has something that they see as private.

Is this really happening?

The government has already completed a “consultation” with the public - 
which ended in January 2003. Did anyone ask you what you thought?

The government’s record on other consultations has been abysmal. Policies 
are developed centrally, and the process of consultation is merely a litmus 
test of public opinion to aid the spin doctors. This consultation has been 
no different. Blunkett will brook no dissent to ID cards - when challenged 
by his Parliamentary colleagues he exclaimed, “this is degenerating into a 
contest with intellectual pygmies”.

In any case, identity cards and the collection of biometric information on 
the UK population are already being introduced on the sly. Recent reports 
include the fingerprinting of all school kids in one region, biometric 
library cards for students, an entitlement card for benefits in one area of 
the North East - and unbelievably even on the back of Ready Brek cereal, a 
special offer for kids to get their own ID card with photo.

Victory Down Under!

In 1987 the Australians managed to stop their government from introducing a 
national identify card system.

Massive opposition to the plans in Australia reached the point of open civil 
disobedience. Australian understood that the introduction of such a scheme 
would reduce freedoms and increase the powers of authorities. Indeed 
“freedom” would come to mean the freedoms granted by the card.

As news of the specifics of the ID card legislation spread, the campaign 
strengthened. If you had a job but no ID card it would be a $20000 offence 
for your employer to pay you. It would be an $20000 offence to hire a 
cardless person. Without an ID card you could not get access to a 
pre-existing bank account. Cardless people could not buy or rent their own 
home or land ($5000 penalty). Non-accidental destruction of an ID card = 
$5000 or 2 years in prison. Failure to report loss of ID card within 21 days 
= $500. Failure to produce your ID card on demand to the Tax Office = 
$20000.

In the face of mass public protests and civil disobedience, the government 
eventually scrapped the ID card proposal.

Resistance in the UK

This is the first government legislation since the Poll Tax which will 
affect everyone.

It will require everyone to register, and which will initially have the most 
impact on marginal groups (who need benefits, NHS, work on the sly, are 
criminalised, asylum seekers, activists etc).

Defy-ID is an (emerging!) adhoc network of groups and individuals prepared 
to actively resist the introduction of a national identity card scheme in 
the United Kingdom as part of resistance to a Big Brother state.

Tactics of resistance might include

- Non-cooperation

- Sabotage

- Creating support networks for cardless people


Contact: admin at defy-id.org.uk

To join the Defy-ID emailing list, send a blank email to 
list-subscribe at defy-id.org.uk

Sheffield group being set up in the next few days there will be /no2id at 
urbanparanoia with e list links info on actions:

0742

_________________________________________________________________
Want to block unwanted pop-ups? Download the free MSN Toolbar now!  
http://toolbar.msn.co.uk/