Nexus - 1606 - New Times Magazine-pages

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policies and practices in an agenda of policy harmonisation: ..it is proposed that by 2014 the EU needs to create a ‘Euro- Atlantic area of cooperation with the USA in the field of freedom, security and justice’. This would go far beyond current co-operation and mean that policies affecting the liberties and rights of everyone in Europe would not be determined in London or Brussels but in secret EU-US ..The scheme is a joint project between the Office of National Statistics and the Treasury... The idea was developed by the Treasury's public services productivity panel—a group of senior business people and public services managers... [The Home Office] admitted a national identity card scheme will have to be ‘underpinned by a database of all UK residents’ and asked for views on whether the citizens information register should be used for this purpose... meetings. Was this a response to 9/11? No, emphatically not. The Indian ID scheme is another major example. We can say this because some of these schemes have a__ According to an article in the Hindu (26 June 2009): published history and timeline dating from much ...the UID [Unique IDentification| numbers and the earlier, e.g., Taiwan, 1997, and India, 1999. We can trace database will be linked to agencies such as the Election a continuing pursuit of ID-based databases back to the Commission of India and the Income Tax Department, Australia Card, which was defeated in which...issue...voters photo identity 1987. We can also say with certainty cards... that EU-US cooperation on security In addition, it will be used for Q/ll. as. does EU| +one ID number is pre-dates providing services under government development of security databases the key to access schemes such as the public which have been applied to political Q distribution system, and the National protestors. all services and also Rural Employment Guarantee all databases... Scheme for families living below the What Do ID Cards Do? poverty line...and for delivering The new cards are like a high-tech When numerous financial and other assistance to the "glue", an interface, joining together databases are needy. all the different state databases and . linking their information together. linked together This is the new model for e- This is the significance of the “multi- government around the world. functional" identity function of by means of a Historically, this isn't the first common interface, in this case ID numbers, they effectively function as a single "meta-database". time we have seen systems like this. It is very similar in concept to the Nazi ID system, as it finally evolved, with a Reich Personnel Number to link all other databases. The system of compiling the initial population register from records in existing, earlier databases is, again, very similar to Nazi practice. the new cards: one ID number is the key to access all services and also all databases. One card, one number, tracks a person across multiple activities, across their whole life and everything they do—employment, tax, health, everything. When numerous databases are linked together by means of a common interface, in this case ID numbers, they effectively function as a single Why should this be significant? "meta-database". Why should there be any big deal In the Guardian (30 September 2003), home affairs about the government collecting together data that it editor Alan Travis wrote that the "citizen information already has? register" in Britain will "bring together all the existing As reported by Henry Porter in his Guardian blog (25 information held by the government" on its 58 million February 2009): residents: ‘Once an individual has been assigned a unique index It will include their name, address, date of birth, sex, and a number, it is possible to accurately retrieve data across unique personal number to form a ‘more accurate and numerous databases and build a picture of that transparent’ database than existing national insurance, individual's life that was not authorised in the original tax, medical, passport, voter and driving licence records... consent for data collection,’ says Sir David Omand in a The decision to give the go-ahead to the national report for the Institute for Public Policy Research... population register without any apparent need for new In 2006 Sir David Varney, the head of Transformational legislation or any public debate is in sharp contrast to the Government, predicted that the state would know ‘a deep intense cabinet debate now taking place over the...identity truth about the citizen based on their behaviour, experience, card scheme... beliefs, needs or desires’. The Indian ID scheme is another major example. According to an article in the Hindu (26 June 2009): ...the UID [Unique IDentification| numbers and the database will be linked to agencies such as the Election Commission of India and the Income Tax Department, which...issue...voters photo identity cards... In addition, it will be used for number IS providing services under government to access schemes such as the public d | distribution system, and the National S and also Rural Employment Guarantee bases... Scheme for families living below the poverty line...and for delivering umerous financial and other assistance to the ses are needy. the key to access all services and also protestors. common case ID numbers, they effectively function as a single "meta-database". NEXUS ¢ 13 ...one ID number is all databases... When numerous databases are linked together by means of a interface, in this OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 2009 www.nexusmagazine.com