Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Corporate Watch report shows: Even IT industry doesn't trust ID cards

Corporate Watch | 23.01.2006 15:37 | Analysis

Corporate Watch scrutinises the companies angling to be involved in implementing the ID cards scheme if it becomes law, and looks at what IT industry insiders have said about ID card technology and the planned National Identity Register


Corporate Watch report shows: Even IT industry doesn't trust ID cards

"Corporate Identity - A critical analysis of private companies' engagement with the identity cards scheme"

The government's defeat in the House of Lords last week demonstrated growing unease at the secrecy surrounding the ID cards scheme.

In a new report, Corporate Watch(1) scrutinises the companies angling to be involved in implementing the scheme if it becomes law. Some of them have previously overseen disasters in public sector IT work. For example, contractor EDS was responsible for the catastrophic introduction of working tax credits where computer errors led to £2.2bn of overpayments and eventual termination of the contract.

The report uncovers misgivings circulating within the IT industry about biometric technology(2) and the National Identity Register database. It also reveals concerns from both companies and government bodies about transparency and accountability in government IT outsourcing processes. The report's author, Rebecca Spencer, expressed concern over the findings:

'We set out to review what companies are saying to each other about the ID cards scheme and found that even some of those bidding for contracts say privately that it will be a disaster. When technology companies like Unisys and QinetiQ are questioning ID cards, something has to be wrong.'(3)

The report concludes that neither the major contractors nor the government have shown themselves capable of organising and implementing an outsourced IT scheme on this scale. No country has attempted to use biometric technologies to register a population the size of the UK.

Corporate Watch's report recommends either sending the ID cards scheme back to the drawing board or amending it so that all elements of compulsion are removed and no individual is forced to deal with flawed technology.

View the report online at  http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/?lid=2298

Notes:

1) About Corporate Watch - Corporate Watch is a small, independent research group based in Oxford, working on profiling, publishing and exposing detrimental social and environmental effects companies have on people and the planet.

2) Atos Origin, one of the companies involved in trialling the cards, reported that: "Only 61% of disabled participants and 90% of the sample chosen to represent the general population were able to enrol two iris scans; verification of facial scans was 48% for disabled participants and 69% for the representative sample; fingerprint verification was around 80% for both groups. 0.62% of disabled participants were unable to enrol a single biometric". See: 'UK Passport Service Biometrics Enrolment Trial Report' May 2005 -  http://www.passport.gov.uk/downloads/UKPSBiometrics_Enrolment_Trial_Report.pdf

3) 'A national ID card for the UK is overly ambitious, extremely expensive and will not be a panacea against terrorism or fraud, although it will make a company like mine very happy.' Roberto Tavano, biometrics specialist for Unisys, one of the companies considering bidding for contracts. Quoted in The Guardian, 21/10/05
'The requirement for 100 per cent accuracy is huge and I don't think we've ever seen a system which is 100 per cent accurate.' Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, former chair of QinetiQ. Reported on 18/10/05 by silicon.com, 'Lack of "balls" in Whitehall will hinder ID cards' Will Sturgeon  http://www.silicon.com/publicsector/0,3800010403,39153447,00.htm

Corporate Watch
- Homepage: http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk

Comments

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech