NO2ID

It originally sounded like the NIR was going to be a goldmine of private information, however I noticed this in the ePetition responce:



So will it really just hold the same amount of information as say, the passport office? Plus fingerprints? If so it seems like the NO2ID website could do with an update...

However I'm not sure how this ties in with the Identity Cards Act 2006, which in parts seems to suggest a different story.

Any information would be appriciated.

The National Identity Register will not hold your medical records, but it will hold your NHS number. It will not hold your tax records, but it will hold your NI number. It will not hold your criminal records but will, presumably, hold your criminal record number/index to your entry on the DNA database/whatever. The purpose of the NIR is to link information held on other databases, but it will not actually duplicate those data within itself.

Ah I understand now, and obviously having references to other databases is just as bad. I mean theoretically these databases could all be linked without an ID card, but it would be harder and not so transparent.

Much, much harder.

Half the reason for the "ID card enrolment interview" was to get you to bring in your driving licence, passport, NI card, etc, etc, so that all these numbers could be reliably recorded on your NIR record.

If they just tried to go through the existsing NHS records, Tax records, DVLA records etc and link the records together blind, without the subject's "cooperation", I doubt they'd get much better than 90% accuracy. That may sound pretty good, but having 4-5 million individuals linked to the wrong database records would negate all the promises they made themselves about the "benefits" of the scheme to government departments.

Make no mistake, the NIR and enrolment interviews are an integral part of the scheme.

Edits: Edited for spelling.

It's spin, or something subtler. The Home Office agencies are absolute masters of producing statements that are absolutely literally true if read very carefully, but completely misleading if interpreted as most people will interpret them.

Whether or not you call this a deception or a lie, we need to expose it asap.

Indeed, many people who signed the petition may have read the responce and been completely mislead by it.

Perhaps there should be a section on the main site which responds to all the government spin like this, deciphering it for the average person to be able to understand? Just an idea.

Which is why the government loves the No.10 e-Petition concept and NO2ID discourages people from creating or supporting them. If you do so you are putting effort into handing an audience to government spin-doctors, not affecting policy in any way.

When the Cabinet Office first came up with e-
Petitions, the approach was unrefined, so pressure groups could host their own, and need only submit the names and addresses. That meant they were a means for groups to build their own mailing lists, and the government could not necessarily reach the signatories. NO2ID took advantage of that - not because we were naive enough to believe the government would listen, but to get press coverage and to build our own organisation.

Now that situation has been reversed. The creator of a No.10 petition is serving to diffuse and de-fuze dissent.