Re: Fraud Prevention

The message <dt54uo$r2i$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
from "Calpol" <jostoll@xxxxxxxx> contains these words:

We don't *have* ID cards. Yet.

Why not? What's the promble? Mine costs me 6.5 Eurinos every 5 years, plus
the price of a couple of new photees and something to get the ink of me
fingertips. I am compelled to carry ID at all times by order of the
Cordwainer and his minions, but have never found it an infringement of my
right to be me.

The problem in the UK is complex.

Historically we haven't had 'em for years and Brits are stick in the muds.

The system is going to be /very/ expensive - the gummermint won't come
clean on how much it's going to cost but is happy to rubbish any
estimates it doesn't like.

The data involved will be far more complex than cards in other EU countries.

The data security doesn't appear to be very good - almost anyone will be
able to access it "with good reason".

We've been told so many stories about it that no one now believes any of
'em. "It'll end terrorism" "It'll end benefit fraud" "It'll control
immigration" "It'll cure wind". Trouble is that since most entities who
might want to see the card will not be using the biometric data
contained theron[1] it doesn't really offer anything of the sort.

The reliability of the technology is poor. You can wind up the
sensitivity to allow few false passes - but then you get huge numbers
of false rejections and vice versa. With current techniques wherever you
choose on the security/accuracy curve isn't acceptable. This will change
in time but it ain't there yet.

Some of us really don't trust the goverment with that much data given
the history they have of screwing up badly. The current government may
be benign at least in intent, but that may not be true of future
governments. If a truly odious government were to come to power we'd be
even more at their mercy than otherwise.

No systems have yet been put forward to cope with those for whom retina
scans etc will not be reliable - they just seem doomed to a life of
refused services.

[1] Since the scan equipment will be expensive most places will simply
do a visual check. If all places where you might need it actually
scanned your physog the actual card itself would be redundant - just
looking into the camera would be proof of ID.

--
Skipweasel
You are now free to do as we tell you.
.

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