UK citizens will face fine rather than sign up to ID card register

[mawilson 2,133]

by OUT-LAW.COM

Hundreds of thousands of people will refuse to sign up to the UK Government's planned

identity register, according to just-published research. Around eight per cent of those

surveyed said they would refuse to sign up to the database even if they are fined.

The survey was carried out by polling firm YouGov on behalf of the Daily Telegraph

newspaper and in a sample of 1,979 people found that a significant proportion were

prepared to defy the government over the database.

Of the 39 per cent of people who opposed the identity register, 21 per cent said they

would resist signing up, even if it meant paying a small fine. That figure is eight

per cent of the total.

If the figures are extrapolated to the entire UK population of 60 million people they

mean that 23.4 million would oppose the database and 4.8 million would be prepared

to face a fine for resisting signing up. If just two per cent of the country's over 16s

refused to register then the Government would face a one million person revolt, the

Telegraph said.

The survey found that 52 per cent of people are unhappy at their details being kept

on a database, and that the biggest concern was that people could access the information

who were not entitled to see it. Of those 52 per cent of people, 77 per cent said that

they believed unauthorised personnel would see the information, while 71 per cent

said the system could contain harmful errors about them.

The national identity register will be the main database for the Government's proposed

ID cards. The register will contain identifying biometric data.

Though residents will not be required to carry the ID card at all times, OUT-LAW revealed

last week that the ID card legislation allows the mobile fingerprint scanners that police

are currently testing to access that database. That means that if police are given the

go-ahead for mobile fingerprint machines, someone's identity can be checked

immediately on the street against the database.

The Telegraph survey showed that there were high levels of approval for many of the

kinds of surveillance that are on the increase in the UK. CCTV cameras in high streets

were approved of by 85 per cent of people, photographing airline passengers by 72

per cent. Maintaining DNA material on a national database had an approval rating of

just 37 per cent.

Information Commissioner Richard Thomas has repeatedly warned that the UK is

becoming a surveillance society without any real public debate about the process or

its consequences.

"Two years ago I warned that we were in danger of sleepwalking into a surveillance

society," Thomas said in November. "Today I fear that we are in fact waking up to

a surveillance society that is already all around us."

Despite 79 per cent of people surveyed saying they thought the UK was a surveillance

society, 62 per cent said they did not feel they were spied upon.

[MHandMB 0]

That's scary. The same stuff is about to happen in the US with the REAL ID act. I am all about protecting the security of the country, but at the price of civil freedom?

[Dr_LHA 3]

So what about UK citizens who live abroad, will we be required to enter the database? If we don't what happens if we get pulled over while visiting the UK and don't have one of these new ID cards?

Edited December 7, 2006 by dr_lha

[Kez/JWolf 6]

If you are a law abiding citizen or resident of a country then you have nothing to fear when it comes to I.D cards and data bases..... after all each and everyone of us here on VJ who gets approved for a greencard is allready on a data base and are required to carry our Greencards.... does that make me feel like my civil freedoms have been violated.... NO

Kez

[munchkins 0]

Personally it does not bother me in the slightest but in all honesty I think it is just another way to raise money or the government coffers, in other words another stealth tax

[mmb 0]

Looks like all those fines could be a nice little earner for the government