[no2id-supporters] NO2ID Newsletter No.28

[no2id-supporters-admin at no2id.net]

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NO2ID NEWSLETTER - Supporter's Newsletter No.28 - 8th September 2005

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++ NEW VIRAL AD CAMPAIGN

This week NO2ID have launched a web based viral ad campaign to highlight how
much of a swizz the government's ID card proposals are. The ad, 'the swizz of
the cards', was produced by eclectech who also produced the singing dog
animation 'The very model of a modern Labour minister'.
Please pass on the following link to as many people as you can (without
spamming obviously). Their is an 'email to a friend' link on the ad page.
Link to Ad: http://eclectech.co.uk/swizz.php

+ FRESHERS' FAIRS APPEAL

We are keen to distribute our campaign materials at freshers' fairs up and
down the country as the new academic year starts. To do this we need groups
and organisations in the colleges to help us. If you have contact with any
such groups that would be willing to help us please let us know. Contact
office at no2id.net.

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++ WHAT YOU CAN DO
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The ID cards bill is likely to get its final vote in the House of Commons in
October(3rd Reading). There are a number of ways you can help:

+ 1. DISTRIBUTE OUR VIRAL AD LINK
Send a link to our viral ad (http://eclectech.co.uk/swizz.php) to all of your
friends.

+ 2. SIGN OUR NEW MILLION POUND PLEDGE
Please, if you can, make your pledge at http://www.pledgebank.com/resist or by
texting 'pledge resist' to 6022 [standard text rate].
Pass on or promote this message/link to as many sympathetic people and groups,
mailing lists, bulletin boards and publications as you can *without spamming*.

+ 2. LOBBY/WRITE TO YOUR MP
The NO2ID website has a lobbying tool (http://mps.no2id.net) to help you lobby
your MP. Write or lobby/speak to your MP (in constituency surgeries) and
encourage them to vote against the bill at 3rd Reading and to sign EDM 263
against identity cards now.
Fax Westminster MPs - http://www.faxyourmp.com/
Early Day Motion(EDM) 263
http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=28464

+ 3. HELP US BY JOINING NO2ID / DONATING
Please join NO2ID, if you are not already a paid-up member.
(There's a membership form at http://www.no2id.net/downloads/membForm.pdf)
OR
Donate some money towards campaign expenses.
NO2ID, Box 412, 78 Marylebone High Street, LONDON W1U 5AP

+ 4. GET INVOLVED WITH LOCAL GROUPS
Organise leafleting, a stall or a public meeting to educate the public about
the database that lies behind the proposed ID card scheme.
See http://www.no2id.net/localGroups

* We also maintain a list of things you can do on our website at
http://www.no2id.net/getInvolved/other.php
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

++ WHAT'S NEXT?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

+ NEW NO2ID ONLINE MERCHANDISE

NO2ID have launched a new range of merchandise that can be purchased online
from cafepress.com. There are T-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs and bags all
sporting the NO2ID logo and designs by our resident cartoonist, Hack.
Note : The items are shipped from the US, so they should be ordered
individually, as orders of more than $20 in value (goods, not including
postage) will incur Customs & Excise charges.
  See http://www.cafepress.com/no2idshop
  For our original logo T-shirts, see
http://www.no2id.net/getInvolved/shop.php

+ LOCAL GROUPS NEWS

There are new local groups commissioned in Wandsworth, Sunderland, Plymouth
and Kensington & Chelsea. Groups up and down the country have been organising
street stalls, including Bedford where they recently signed up over 200
people. NO2ID Cambridge co-ordinator, Andrew Watson, told us: "It's amazing
what you can do with 4 people, a paste table and a spare Saturday morning!"

+ 10th SEPTEMBER, NO2ID NORWICH STREET STALL

NO2ID Norwich are planning another street stall on Gentleman's Walk in Norwich
on Saturday 10th September from 10 am, all are welcome to help collect
supporters signatures and hand out NO2ID badges and stickers. This follows on
from the great success they had last Saturday(3rd September) when they
collected 111 signatures on the general NO2ID petition, 49 signatures on a
letter to Charles Clarke(Home Secretary and Norwich South MP), and 15
signatures on a letter to Ian Gibson(Norwich North MP), for a total of 175 new
NO2ID supporters.

NO2ID Norwich's letter congratulated Mr Gibson for voting against ID cards and
encouraged him to continue to do so in the future. Their letter to Charles
Clarke on the other hand, warned that if he votes for the ID cards bill "we
shall ensure that you are held to account at the next General Election".
  For more details of the Norwich Street Stall or to volunteer contact
norwich at no2id.net

+ 10th SEPTEMBER, NO2ID OXFORD STALL

In the run up to Oxfordshire County council's vote against ID cards, NO2ID
Oxford will have a stall in the town centre on Saturday 10th September.  They
are also planning a public meeting in Oxford on the 13th September. Oxford
NO2ID hold fortnightly meetings (next meeting 11th September).
  For more information or to volunteer to help with the stall on the 10th
September contact oxford at no2id.net or see http://www.no2id-oxford.org/forum/.

+ 20th SEPTEMBER, HULL PUBLIC MEETING - "Identity and the Surveillance State:
Why ID Cards won't work"

Tuesday, 20th September 2005, 7.30pm in the Windsor Suite of the Quality Royal
Hotel, Ferensway, Hull.
Speaker: Cllr Keith Taylor, Principal Speaker of the Green Party.
For more details, or if you can help out, please e-mail James Russell on
james at cramsay.karoo.co.uk

+ PARTY CONFERENCES

NO2ID will be holding fringe meetings at the party conferences this year,
which will take place in September/October.

Confirmed to date:
+ 26 September NO2ID at Labour Party Conference
Monday, 26 September 2005, 7.00pm - 8.30pm at Brighthelm Auditorium, North
Road, Brighton BN1 1YD.
We are looking for Brighton based volunteers to help at this event.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

++ WHAT JUST HAPPENED?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

+ FRONT PAGE NEWS - CAMBRIDGE NO2ID

Cambridge NO2ID succeeded in getting the campaign against ID cards onto the
front page of the Cambridge Evening News at the end of last month(26th
August). The group wrote a letter, signed by 30 people, to the paper about the
NO2ID pledge. Cambridge NO2ID co-ordinator Andrew Watson said: "If you are a
local group organiser you'd be amazed what you can achieve." He said that its
surprisingly easy to get a lot of press coverage by writing the odd press
release and pushing it to your local paper and radio station.

Cambridge NO2ID has been running since November of last year. Just three
people turned up to their first meeting in a pub. Their second meeting
attracted 20 people and so they arranged a public meeting which was attended
by 160 people. They have organised a number of street stalls over the past few
months at which, according to Andrew: "we've found that we can sign up about
60 people an hour against ID cards. There's a lot of sentiment against ID
cards out there at the moment, you just need to tap into it".
  NO2ID Cambridge's letter: http://tinyurl.co.uk/qjqn
  The front page story: http://tinyurl.co.uk/kp1b

+ NO2ID MEETING LONDON

Last Thursday(1st September) NO2ID held a campaign update and planning meeting
in central London. A large group of supporters squeezed into The Yorkshire
Gray pub off Great Portland Street to take part. National co-ordinator Phil
said that through September the focus will be targeting MPs that we think we
may be able to convince to vote against the ID cards bill when it is voted on
again in the House of Commons. He told the meeting that "we want to take this
to the MPs doorstep, to make them realise that this is something which, if
they vote for it, is going to have a massive impact on them and on their
party".

   GOOD TIME TO WRITE TO LOCAL PRESS

Dave Walker, NO2ID Public Affairs, said that letters in the press from now to
mid-October, as MPs return from their summer break, will have a
disproportionate effect compared to any other time. Now is "when they are
going to take notice of whether or not and how any the climate's changed since
they have been away". He added that now is the time to build up a strong sense
of opposition and reminded the meeting that there are 17 backbench labour MPs
with a majority less than 1000.

+ CLARKE AT THE EU PARLIAMENT - PROPOSES BIOMETRICS ON DRIVING LICENSE

Charles Clarke addressed the European Parliament this week (7th September) on
the topic of 'Liberty and Freedom'. He spoke about a number of proposals that
the UK Presidency wants to highlight. These included "retention of
telecommunications data, establishing a second generation of the Schengen
Information System and putting in place a new Visa Information System". He
also suggested as part of the move towards "harmonization of biometric data",
the introduction of biometric data into driving licenses across the EU.
Speaking at a press conference he said: "I simply put the question whether if
we are doing that for passports, for visas, for ID cards, we shouldn't also be
doing it for driving licenses". Which is rather reminiscent of the
government's "if we're putting biometrics in passports, we may as well have ID
cards" argument.
  Transcript of Charles Clarke's speech: http://tinyurl.co.uk/gs4k
  Watch the speech: http://tinyurl.co.uk/mtk6
  Watch the press conference : http://tinyurl.co.uk/3hbk

+ IDENTIFICATION IN BRITAIN AND THE BRITISH EMPIRE

Last Saturday, Chris Lightfoot of NO2ID Cambridge presented a brief paper on
the biometric technologies behind ID cards at a conference at St Antony's
College, Oxford. The conference on "Technologies of Identification in Britain
and the British Empire", was organised by historians Jane Caplan and Edward
Higgs. Other, weightier, papers discussed the history of identification
systems in Britain from the late mediaeval period through to the ID cards of
the Second World War and beyond. Chris writes, "There is, it turns out,
nothing new under the sun, and many of the problems -- like identity fraud,
detecting forged documents, and proving entitlement -- that we're struggling
with today were familiar to our ancestors. There are some useful lessons here
for all parties in today's debate."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

++ "ID" In the News
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

+ Big brother's here now'
Home Secretary Charles Clarke tried to breathe new life into his bid to
introduce national identity cards and declared: "Big Brother society is
already here and my job is to control it."
http://tinyurl.co.uk/9xvp

+ UK's first biometric passports to be issued overseas
Starting in January 2006, British passports issued outside the UK will include
facial recognition and individual demographic data - such as name, age and
birthplace - stored in a microchip. Technology firm 3M will equip 104 British
Embassies, Consulates and High Commissions around the world with new passport
issuance systems that can capture and identify biometric information.
http://europa.eu.int/idabc/en/document/4555/194

+ Alarm over ID card checks
Electronic cards designed to store information about students' attendance are
increasingly being used by pubs and shops to check the holder's age when
buying alcohol or cigarettes. But private contractor Capita, which
co-ordinates the card, has also been selling special card-readers to local
authorities for use in bars and shops. The readers cost around £18.
http://www.tes.co.uk/2124363

+ UK ID card will have to meet biometric standards
New international standards for biometrics that will apply to the government's
controversial ID cards project have been published by standards body BSI. But
the Home Office is already sounding out potential ID card suppliers, issuing a
prior information notice earlier this month in a bid to test market capacity
before a full procurement exercise.
http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2005/08/30/211542/UKIDcardwillhavetomee
tbiometricstandards.htm

+ Scam fear over iris scans
THE use of iris scans on ID cards could be scuppered by fraudsters using an
optician's chemical that makes the iris disappear, an expert has claimed. Ross
Anderson, professor of Security Engineering at the University of Cambridge,
revealed that criminals in Dubai used the chemical atropine to make their
irises disappear and avoid detection by authorities.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2005390717,00.html

+ ID cards 'dangerous and costly mistake'
NATIONAL identity cards would waste £5 billion in tax-payers' money without
improving security, according to a group of Cambridge campaigners. The group
of 30 activists have written to the News warning the money spent introducing
ID cards in Britain could instead put 10,000 more police on the streets.
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/region_wide/2005/08/26/ba09df4a-7305-4fef
-ba4d-aba85d88501a.lpf

+ PICTURE PERFECT: PASSPORT PHOTOS MUST MEET INTERNATIONAL ANTI-FRAUD
STANDARDS
The UK Passport Service (UKPS) is reminding its customers to make sure that
photos supplied with their passport applications meet the international
requirements announced last summer. Passport photos need to meet more
stringent, internationally agreed standards to enable facial recognition
technology to work properly.
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/n_story.asp?item_id=1358

+ Fraudsters show how to beat chip and pin
Chip-and-pin technology, the latest weapon against credit card crime, will not
reduce fraud and could make it easier, a criminologist argues today. Reliance
on a personal identity number, rather than human vigilance, could create new
opportunities for the unscrupulous.
http://money.guardian.co.uk/scamsandfraud/story/0,13802,1562682,00.html

+ Hi-tech no panacea for ID theft woes
Attempts to thwart identity theft and fraud through technology advances are
likely to prove counterproductive. The introduction of Chip and PIN on credit
cards and UK government plans to introduce identity card schemes will only
encourage crooks to become more imaginative.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/05/hi-tech_id_theft_cure_fallacy/

+ Criminals to 'adapt to ID cards'
The UK government's proposed ID scheme will do little to stop identity theft
and may actually exacerbate fraudulent behaviour in its early years. That is
the view of researcher Dr Emily Finch who interviews career criminals about
their activities. She has detailed how they adapt their strategies to get
around new anti-crime technologies such as chip and pin.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4213848.stm

+ UK Government offshores digitisation of civil records
Over 250 million certificates will be digitised in India to keep costs down.
In spite of the government's security assurances, the UK Public and Commercial
Services Union (PCS) has voiced strong opposition to the offshoring of civil
records' digitisation.
http://europa.eu.int/idabc/en/document/4561/194

(Please send me any items of interest you encounter -
Editor(newsletter at no2id.net) )
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Publication details:  © NO2ID 2005 - This document may be freely redistributed
in one-to-one communications or physical copies as long as it is reproduced in
its entirety including this notice. It may not be mass-mailed without the
prior permission of NO2ID.

NO2ID, Box No.412, 78 Marylebone High Street, LONDON W1U 5AP