UK changes tune on ID data test
Mark Ballard writes in The Inquirer:
The UK Home Office has said it will not be using criminal data types to test the National Identity Register, a week after it said it would be using criminal data types to test the National Identity Register.
The Home Office has arranged to borrow millions of fingerprint records from the US Federal Bureau of Investigations – in both rolled (printed) and flat (electronic) formats – to test the UK’s Identity Card Scheme. Last week, a spokeswoman for the Home Office said it would be using rolled FBI prints to test the National Identity Register, the heart of the UK’s Identity Card Scheme.
This was odd. Criminal databases including the UK’s own IDENT-1 store images of rolled prints because they need to be of a high quality to stand up in a court of law. But the NIR was going to use flat prints because it only needs quality enough to identify people, not convict them.
No2ID, a campaign group, had suggested that the Identity and Passport Service might test the NIR with rolled fingerprint data so that Identity Records can be matched against those stored in criminal databases. It would second the National Identity Register as a fish farm for criminal investigations, said No2ID.
