Privacy and Security

A couple of good articles seen out and about on the web… first ‘Privacy and Power‘ by the inimitable Bruce Schneier:

‘… In a world of ubiquitous surveillance, you’ll know all about me, but I will also know all about you. The government will be watching us, but we’ll also be watching the government. This is different than before, but it’s not automatically worse. And because I know your secrets, you can’t use my secrets as a weapon against me.

This might not be everybody’s idea of utopia — and it certainly doesn’t address the inherent value of privacy — but this theory has a glossy appeal, and could easily be mistaken for a way out of the problem of technology’s continuing erosion of privacy. Except it doesn’t work, because it ignores the crucial dissimilarity of power.

You cannot evaluate the value of privacy and disclosure unless you account for the relative power levels of the discloser and the disclosee.’

And for afters, perhaps you think it’s ‘Time to fight security superstition‘ by Cory Doctorow:

We can’t mention terrorist attacks at the airport while we’re being subjected to systematic anti-dignity depredations; your bank won’t let you open an account with a passport – you need to supply a laser-printed utility bill as well (“to prevent money laundering” … you can just hear Osama’s chief forgers gnashing their teeth for lack of a piece of A4).

The superstitions that grip airport checkpoints and banks are themselves a threat to security, because the security that does not admit of examination and discussion is no security at all.

If terrorists are a danger to London, then the only way to be safe is to talk about real threats and real countermeasures, to question the security around us and shut down the systems that don’t work.

Just remember kids – KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON.

QuID venio?

Well it’s certainly been a busy few weeks for news about the UK’s ID Cards scheme. The increased media coverage is most welcome, especially considering much has been at least critical towards the plans, if not downright negative. For the interested amongst you, here’s some of what’s been going on.

We kick off with the leak of the Home Office’s “National Identity Scheme Options Analysis Outcome” via the WikiLeaks site at the end of January. This gives a very interesting insight into the current governmental thinking about the scheme, and the announcements of recent days all fit nicely with the plans and attitudes expressed in the document.

The No2ID campaign have provided an annotated version (PDF), which is essential reading, picking apart the document and highlighting many points of concern. The key points were extracted and built into a No2ID press release, sent out on the 26th January, which said:

A Home Office document leaked to the Sunday People shows that the government is considering “various forms of coercion” to force people onto the ID cards database. Young people “who may be applying for their first Driving Licence” are picked out as a “target group“.

A slide headed “Contract Renewals” from last week’s leaked documents – which showed that airport workers, students and people applying for a bank account could be forced to register for ID cards from as soon as 2009 – indicates that the DVLA is intended to be the “interim card supplier” for the ID scheme until 31/10/2010.

Phil Booth, NO2ID’s National Coordinator, commented:
…
“We’ve now seen the documents that confirm what NO2ID has said all along – the database state will be introduced by coercion, pure and simple.”

Coercion. That’s the magic word here, and it is directly used by the Government in this report. It means “the use of force or intimidation to obtain compliance” – this is what they are down to. No-one apart from Brown and his cronies want ID Cards, no-one thinks it’s a good idea or a good use of our money, but they will ignore all of us and do it anyway.

Coercion is the method of tyrants, and these tyrants are destroying all the things that make our country good. This should be the death knell for the Labour rule in this land.

Fast-forward to the present day and, surprise surprise, as predicted in the No2ID press release our esteemed Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced in the last week that, after going for the soft target of foreign nationals, airport workers will be one of the first groups to have compulsory Identity Cards, with young people and students being the next targets for assimilation (albeit voluntary).

It all makes perfect sense: first make specific workers need ID cards to earn their wage – picking on airport workers is the easy choice, with the obvious terrorism fear connotations, although quite why National Identity Cards need to be involved at all is beyond me; I’m sure Heathrow has ID management and security systems to rival any airport in the world. But of course, most won’t think deeply enough about it to see this disparity. Next, target the vulnerable and those who don’t know better – young people are more softened up to compromising their rights in return for benefits or a brighter future.

Given that governmental strategy seems to have closely followed that which is outlined in this document, we can expect the remaining elements of the plan to be executed in due course. That is: further coercion applied to specific slices of society, the next being first time drivers (and after that, probably the rest of the driving population, given the DVLA’s involvement). Anyone wishing to travel out of the country will be next – after 2011 all passport applicants will be automatically enrolled on the National Identity Register, whether they want an ID card or not.

It’s compulsion by stealth, and all about dividing and conquering – coercion goes unpunished on a small scale, but this method of tyranny has been utilised many times in history, enough to inspire poetry.