Previous Politech message: http://www.politechbot.com/2005/07/04/uk-identity-cards/ Background on London bombings: http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/07/07/london.tube/index.html -------- Original Message -------- Subject: London Bombings and British National ID Cards Date: Thu, 07 Jul 2005 21:38:07 -0500 From: Scott Purl <scott.purl@private> To: Declan McCullagh <declan@private> How soon till the proposed British National ID card is named as something that would have prevented today's bombings? And with all those CCTV cameras littered about London, where's the footage of the bombers? Is there none because the cameras weren't pervasive/invasive enough? Maybe someone out there in Politechland can answer this one. Why do all these national ID cards have to carry around a copy of the bearer's personal information (which then makes it that much easier to duplicate)? My credit card doesn't actually carry around my bank balance. A pound note isn't actually worth a pound. They are representative of something valuable elsewhere. Why can't these cards and passports carry some holographic bar code that can be scanned from a foot away, and then a picture of me and my information pop up on the security guards' screen after being downloaded from a central government computer? Or is it because fancy holographic stickers are on cheap enough to put on packs of gum now, and thus there's no expensive infrastructure to sell? Cheers, Scott _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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