[no2id-supporters] NO2ID Newsletter No.58
no2id-supporters at no2id.net
no2id-supporters at no2id.net
Thu Nov 9 17:02:20 GMT 2006
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NO2ID Supporters' Newsletter No. 58 - 9th November 2006
*Contacting us:* Call or email the office - 020-7793-4005 or
(office at no2id.net). Please do not reply to this email. (The from address
is the not a working email address)
FINGERPRINT PUB SCHEME MUST BE STOPPED
Pubs and clubs around the country are introducing fingerprint scanning
systems for drinkers. The scheme which is backed by the Home Office was
first trialled in Yeovil but plans are afoot to expand the system to
Coventry, Hull, Sheffield, Leeds, Gwent, Nottingham, Taunton and
possibly Swindon. Drinkers must have their thumbprints scanned and
supply their name, address and date of birth to enrol onto the system
before they are allowed to enter licensed premises taking part in the
scheme. An increasing number of authoritarian measures are being
introduced by UK pubs and clubs following new licensing laws which were
introduced in November 2005. Licensees are now subject to increased
fines and possible criminal prosecution with a maximum penalty of six
months imprisonment for knowingly serving someone who is under-age. As a
result many pubs have responded with extreme measures that threaten the
freedoms of *everyone*, not just those who happen to look under 18, such
as fingerprinting and ID-ing all customers as if they were all potential
troublemakers. If you are in any of the towns affected, especially
Yeovil, and are willing to do something then send an e-mail to
phil at no2id.net (please put "pub fingerprinting" in the Subject).Don't
get depressed, don't give in and get a home-brew kit - get angry and do
something!
PS. If anyone knows a pub that would like to take NO2ID beer mats,
Newcastle NO2ID has created some with our logo on the front and key
counter-arguments on the back, ideal for starting the discussions of the
scheme that we need. Beermats are produced in huge quantities, so they
need more than a handful to make up an order(if we can make up a total
order of several thousand we can produce beermats for £15 per 100).
Enquiries to newcastle at no2id.net
CALL TO IPSWICH SUPPORTERS - FIGHT THE INTERROGATION CENTRE
We have now uncovered the location of 33 of 69 ID interrogation centres
around the country[1] via planning applications which our local groups
can lodge objections to[2]. The planning committee hearing for the Home
Office's Ipswich Passport/ID Card interrogation centre will take place
on Wednesday 15th November. The meeting starts at 9:30 and the
application is number 4 on the agenda. Ipswich NO2ID supporters have
filed a total of six objections on planning grounds such as traffic,
parking & loss of amenity. We now need to mount a presence at the
planning meeting. Planning Officer Martin Brooks tells us that they
don't restrict the number of people speaking at the meeting (contrary to
the procedure given on the Ipswich Council website), so the more, the
merrier. Anyone interested in attending the meeting, please contact
Geoff Brace (geoff.brace at owldata.co.uk) or Andrew Watson
(andrew.watson at no2id.net, 07710 469624). If we have enough people, we'll
try for media coverage of a demonstration outside the council offices.
The motto of the Ipswich civic coat of arms is Munia Civitatis Decus
Civium (The functions of citizenship are the glory of the citizens).
Let's do our bit - we are citizens not subjects.
Many thanks to all those who have sent us details of interrogation
centre planning applications and to those who volunteered to set up new
groups in towns due an interrogation centre, we are still looking for
more groups in 33 locations[1].
References:
[1] For a list of interrogation centres see
http://www.no2id.net/getInvolved/idCentres.php
[2] Planning application details on our forum -
http://forum.no2id.net/viewtopic.php?t=13329
What's next?
NO2ID could be Britain's biggest civil liberties group - with
your help
We now have a few under 1000 members, and well over 10,000 people on our
email newsletter list. Not bad for a two-year-old. But if everyone now
on the email list were to join, we would be the biggest civil liberties
organisation by membership in Britain, and able to afford permanent
staff to do the work needed to transform the terms of the debate.
Philanthropists have been generous, and we have the services of some
dedicated volunteers, but it is membership fees and donations that
really keep us going day to day, and the fight is intensifying. If you
haven't joined, please do so. If your membership has lapsed, please
renew it. And, if you can, please consider giving by standing order,
which saves hugely on administrative time (see the 'What you can do'
section at the end of this newsletter for more details).
Local groups
We have local groups around the country and in 36 of the 69 locations of
ID interrogation centres. If you can help to set up a local group in one
of the remaining towns then please contact us at (office at no2id.net). A
local group can start with just one person but we will help you to grow.
A full list of local groups can be found at www.no2id.net/localGroups
Your chance to make an anti-ID news programme
The BBC's Newsnight programme is running a competition for viewers to
make a 2-minute news programme on any news item they wish. This would be
an ideal opportunity to highlight the dangers of the National Identity
Register and ID cards. The deadline for submitting films is 4 December 2006.
More info at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/6114950.stm
1st Tuesday of the month - Hackney NO2ID monthly meetings
The Hackney local group covering London E8, E5, E9 & N16 areas meet on
the first Tuesday of each month at 7:30 in Cafe Bohemia by Hackney
Central Station. New support very welcome to help raise awareness over
the coming months.
NO2ID Cambridge Campaign stall
Cambridge NO2ID will be running Saturday street stalls outside Cambridge
Guildhall from 10am onwards on 25th November, 16th December, and every
third Saturday into the new year. Location: (http://tinyurl.com/eo42r).
Volunteers to help very welcome - contact Andrew Watson via
cambridge at no2id.net, or on 07710 469624.
Saturdays 1pm - 3pm - NO2ID Edinburgh Campaign stall
After a short break during the Edinburgh Festival NO2ID Edinburgh has
resumed its regular Princes Street campaigning stall on Saturdays. We
shall be at our usual location at the east end of Princes Street,
opposite the Balmoral Hotel, from 1pm - 3pm this coming Saturday. We
use our stall to raise public awareness of the Identity Cards scheme,
collect donations and entries for the NO2ID petition, and also to
increase membership of our group. Please do pop by for a chat if you
happen to be around. We shall be aiming to have the stall up and
running most Saturdays, and new volunteers are always very welcome. You
can see photos of our stall and contact details at:
www.no2id-scotland.net/edinburgh/.
10th November - Meeting 'Protest is a Right - not a Police
Privilege', Brighton
Friday, 10th November 7.30-9.30pm at the Friends Meeting House, Ship
Street, Brighton. Speakers include: Paddy O'Keefe (Respect) -
Chairperson, Cllr. Francis Tonks, Cllr. Simon Williams (Green Party),
Glenn Williams - Sussex Action for Peace, Tony Greenstein (Palestine
Solidarity /Alliance 4 Green Socialism), James Elsdon-Baker - NO2ID, Abu
Bakr - Save Omar Deghayes Campaign, Smash EDO-MBM speaker.
13th November - Shrewsbury NO2ID meeting
Monday, 13th November 8.15pm at the White Horse in Ironbridge. The
landlords are anti-ID and they serve excellent beer.
(http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/12/12883/White_Horse/Ironbridge).
For more information contact shrewsbury at no2id.net or just show up on the
night.
14th November - Web chat with head of ID programme
Next Tuesday (14th November) James Hall the Chief Executive of the UK
Identity and Passport Service (UKIPS) will take part in online question
and answer session organised by the 10 Downing Street website. You can
put your questions via the site in advance of the event. See Newsletter
56 for some background on Hall and his previous employer Accenture. You
may want to ask whether he says any conflict of interest in the fact
that Accenture has alliances with 49 companies, ten of whom are listed
by UKIPS as wanting a slice of the ID card.
See http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page10364.asp
14th November - Highbury NO2ID Informal Meeting
Tuesday, 14th November 6.30 for a 7pm start at Jorene Celest on 153
Upper Street. All welcome!
24th November - Luton NO2ID informal social evening
Friday, 24th November. The Luton Group will be holding an informal
social evening (dinner + pub) New and existing members very welcome.
Please email luton at no2id.net for details.
25th November - Defy-ID National Gathering
Saturday, 25th November, from 11am onwards at The Sumac Centre in
Nottingham. Meeting to discuss opposition to ID Cards and the National
ID Register. This is not so much a public meeting to discuss the overall
implications of the ID scheme, as a planning day of how we are going to
stop it. See http://www.nottingham-defy-id.org.uk/gathering
29th November - NO2ID Public meeting: Civil liberty vs. the
database state
Wednesday, 29th November, 7.00pm - 9.00pm at Clore Lecture Theatre,
Huxley Building, Imperial College - Queen's Gate/Prince Consort Road,
South Kensington, London SW7. Sir Malcolm Rifkind, QC, MP and Henry
Porter (further speakers to be confirmed), consider where we go from
here. The Identity Cards Act 2006 is law, and must be repealed, but
meanwhile the government is already working on extending its scope,
through "information sharing" across the public sector and an "Identity
Management Action Plan" to be produced by the end of this year. What new
threats does this offer to personal liberty? How can the slide to the
database state be halted? Open to all.
29th November - Channel 4 documentary to look at ID cards
A documentary looking at privacy intrusive technology is to be broadcast
on Channel 4 in November. In the programme, called 'We Know Where You
Live', journalist Henry Porter will explore how a number of new
technologies are being used to support an authoritarian push against our
privacy and civil liberties - including ID cards. The documentary will
air on 20th November at 9pm and 29th November at 10pm on More 4.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
What just happened?
Carlisle City Council votes against ID
This week Carlisle City Council passed an anti-ID cards motion by 32
votes to 11. The motion was supported by all parties, proposed by Steve
Tweedie (Lib Dem) and seconded by John Reardon (Labour). The motion
pointed out that "there is little evidence to show that they[ID cards]
will reduce benefit fraud, illegal immigration, terrorism or crime",
that they are "an affront to civil liberties" and "are likely to have a
harmful effect on Police and community relations". A list of councils
that have passed similar motions can be found at
www.no2id.net/resources/motions/index.php
Edinburgh group hear from passionate anti-ID MSP
Brian Monteith, Independent and former Conservative MSP for Mid-Scotland
and Fife, spoke to the Edinburgh NO2ID group at its October meeting
(25th October). In a wide-ranging powerful speech he said he had been
influenced by The Prisoner in the 1970s and was strongly in favour of
individual liberty and individual rights. While individual cards were
useful, it was their linking together that was dangerous. The Prime
Minister's proposal the previous day of a national DNA database was
roundly attacked. Mr Monteith warned that while it was hard to believe
that the state could actually manage the technology for ID cards it
would be foolish to assume that it could not. He also warned that the
setting up of passport centres[interrogation centres] all over the
country would be presented as increasing convenience to applicants. He
made the same point as the speaker at the previous meeting, who was at
the other end of the political spectrum, namely that when people are
assumed guilty until they are proved innocent they will be far less
likely to cooperate with the police.
Information Commissioner warns of surveillance society
The UK's Information Commissioner discussed the findings of a new report
'A Surveillance Society' at the international Data Protection and
Privacy Commissioners Conference last week. The report was written by
the Surveillance Studies Network and presents a chilling vision of the
surveillance society present and future. One trend outlined is 'social
sorting' whereby government and private sector databases are analysed
and categorized to define target markets and risky populations. The
report points out: "No one has voted directly for such systems. They
come about through drives for greater efficiency and effectiveness in
the public services, pressure from technology corporations, the rise of
'risk' as a key theme in society, and the idea that we should spare
little effort to pre-empt dangers."
A PDF version of the report is available from http://tinyurl.com/ya76db
British ID cards will be "self-financing", international experts
told
British ID cards are to be "self-financing with no subsidy by society,"
says a document presented to an experts' meeting in Finland on 2-3
November. Set up ten years ago with EU backing, the Porvoo Group held
its latest conference in the Finnish town after which it is named. Its
main aim is to "promote a trans-national, interoperable electronic
identity and secure public and private sector e-transactions in Europe".
The Group reports that "an electronic identification service demo made
available on the internet has been tested with at least the electronic
identity cards of Finland, Estonia, Belgium and Italy as well as the
American federal employee ID card". The Group is in close contact with
the US on the standardisation of electronic identities. Also
increasingly involved with Porvoo is the Asia IC Card Forum, which
brings together China, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Thailand under the
slogan "One Card, One Asia". Several types of electronic ID card are
currently being planned in Asia, says the Porvoo Group, which will meet
again in Portugal next spring.
US: 338 personal data leaks in three months
Between July and September, US official agencies reported 338 separate
security incidents involving personally identifiable information to the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The figure was given by Karen
Evans, the OMB administrator for e-government and IT, to an information
security officers' workshop in Virginia at the beginning of November.
Many of the incidents did not involve attacks by outsiders, she said.
"Primarily, people are losing data."
BBC 'Mythbusters' beat fingerprint security
Video of BBC2 television programme Mythbusters using faked fingerprints
to fool biometric security devices is available online. Using gel prints
they were able to open a fingerprint activated door lock that also
measures temperature and pulse. Three different successful techniques
were used including placing a piece of paper with a photocopy of a
fingerprint on it over the sensor.
See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXyFmieZjiE
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"ID" in the news
Has Big Brother seen my brolly? - The Daily Telegraph 8/11/06
To the Head of Surveillance, British Government. Hi there! I was going
to start this letter "Dear Sir or Madam", then I thought, blow it, we're
like old friends. Anyway, I hope I'm not intruding, but I need to ask
you a favour. Could you check the images on your eight CCTV cameras
between the railway station and the public library for late morning last
Thursday or Friday? Only I seem to have lost my umbrella.
http://tinyurl.com/y2ap73
Clubs' fingerprint plan sparks anger - Coventry Telegraph 7/11/06
Pub and clubgoers in Warwickshire could be fingerprinted in a hi-tech
scheme to cut under-age boozing and drunken violence. Six venues have
been chosen in Nuneaton to pilot a hi-tech government scheme using
biometric technology. If the pilot is successful, the technology could
be rolled out to other pubs and clubs in Leamington, Rugby and across
Warwickshire.
http://tinyurl.com/y46hqq
Reasons to be fearful - The Guardian 7/11/06
Polly Toynbee's robust assault on ID card opponents, while quietly
admitting that the cards will likely bring no benefits at all, is a
chilling display of blind optimistic faith in what she terms "the benign
state". When they ask you to pop along for your biometric scans, don't,
please, say "I have nothing to hide, so I have nothing to fear."
Instead, just say "No."
http://tinyurl.com/ww8zm
Debate stalls on Iranian bill on fingerprinting US nationals -
Khaleej Times Online 6/11/06
An Iranian parliamentary debate over a bill which proposes the
fingerprinting of all US citizens entering the country halted Monday
amid tensions between deputies, Iranian student news agency ISNA
reported. Parliament had in early October approved a bill obliging the
digital fingerprinting of all US citizens entering the country, in
retaliation for similar measures applied to Iranians entering the United
States.
http://tinyurl.com/yhy5ea
Pupils sign in with a 'fingerprint' - The Oxford Times 3/11/06
Pupils at an Oxford school are having their fingerprints scanned to
prove they are at school. Cheney School, Headington, is testing a
£20,000 biometric register and will advise other schools in the county
about whether the system is any good. Although pupils can choose to have
a PIN number, the 16-year-old said there were always large queues for
the only two machines that took PINs.
http://tinyurl.com/y2bma2
Police fail to record e-crime - Computing 2/11/06
The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (Post) report on
computer crime says fewer than one in four police forces can generate
any record of e-crime and that, as a result, a large proportion goes
undetected. The report says this problem is distorting crime figures and
hampering prevention.
http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2167740/police-fail-record-crime
School uses hands-on biometrics - Computing 2/11/06
A Scottish primary school has installed a biometric system that uses the
unique position of the veins in the palm of the hand to allow children
to buy their school meals. Palm-vein biometric scanning was selected
because it bypasses the data protection issues of using the children's
fingerprints, says Todholm Primary School headteacher Sandra Gibson.
http://tinyurl.com/y9uy6y
Warning over privacy of 50m patient files - The Guardian 1/11/06
Millions of personal medical records are to be uploaded regardless of
patients' wishes to a central national database from where information
can be made available to police and security services, the Guardian has
learned. Though the government says the database will revolutionise
management of the NHS, civil liberties critics are calling it "data
rape" and are urging Britons to boycott it.
http://society.guardian.co.uk/health/news/0,,1936403,00.html
Fingerprint the expats! FCO plans phase two biometric passport -
The Register 31/10/06
Passports issued by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office are already
"biometric", but only in the somewhat minimalist sense required by ICAO
- the addition of fingerprints, however, would pull overseas UK
residents into the National Identity Register net, closing off a prized
but little-known escape route.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/31/fco_secondary_biometric/
Code highlights e-passport eavesdropping risk - The Register
31/10/06
In a posting
(http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/449926/30/0/threaded) on
security mailing list BugTraq, Adam Laurie of secure hosting facility
the bunker explains how the latest version RFIDIOt, an open-source
python library for RFID exploration, contains code that implements the
standard for machine readable travel documents in the shape of a test
program called mrpkey.py.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/31/rfid_e-passport_attack/
EU: Children to be given electronic identity cards - The
Telegraph Group Limited 25/6/06
Brussels: Electronic identity cards for all children under 12 are to be
introduced in Belgium. They will bear a code designed to allow parents
of missing children to be traced instantly. The new children's cards
will carry a special code number and instructions on how to call a
central missing child hotline.
http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/06/06/25/10049322.html
(Please send me any items of interest you encounter -
Editor(newsletter at no2id.net) )
------------------------------------------------------------------------
What you can do
You can help us by:
1. Joining NO2ID or donating to the campaign
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. Many thanks to all of our
supporters and members that have contributed to the campaign. Our
address is NO2ID, Box 412, 19-21 Crawford Street, LONDON W1H 1PJ
2. Helping to spread our message
Tell your friends and any organisations that you belong to about the
NO2ID campaign and that you are supporting it. Most people are scarcely
aware of the government's ID database project, and few understand the
dangers. Feel free to redistribute this newsletter to acquaintances.
* We also maintain a list of things you can do on our website at
http://www.no2id.net/getInvolved/other.php
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Publication details: © NO2ID 2006 - 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 412, 19-21 Crawford Street, LONDON W1H 1PJ
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