Gaby Hinsliff writes in The Observer:

Gordon Brown is planning a massive expansion of the ID cards project that would widen surveillance of everyday life by allowing high-street businesses to share confidential information with police databases.

Far from intending to dump ID cards once he is in Downing Street, Brown is quietly studying how biometric technology – identifying people by unique markers such as fingerprints and iris patterns – could be expanded over the next 20 years to fight crime.

The story seems to be based on a anonymous briefing:

Brown’s plans belie reports that the Treasury, concerned about the cost of ID cards, would ditch them when he became Prime Minister. ‘It’s almost the opposite – Gordon’s thinking about ID cards is that it’s part of the answer but there’s a much wider picture,’ said a source close to him.

Further quotes from this anonymous source:

‘There is going to be a key issue over the next 10 to 15 years about identity management right across the public and private sectors,’ said the source close to Brown, adding that immigration control would be only part of it. ‘It’s about people coming to accept that this is not only a necessary but desirable part of modern society over the next 10 years. What [the Tories] are objecting to in the political sphere is going to be absolutely commonplace in the private sphere and saying “it’s not the British way” is just not going to work.’

This entry was posted by andrew on Sunday, August 6th, 2006 at 08:23 and is filed under General, Neutral, UK News Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.