Calling Notice 6:30 for 7:00pm, Wednesday 29th November

At a public meeting to be held tomorrow at Imperial College, London [1], in support of the NO2ID [2] campaign, a succession of serious commentators will
discuss from their various viewpoints the dangers to civil liberties posed by the development of government surveillance of the population through computer records – the database state.

These heavyweight critics are: Sir Malcolm Rifkind QC, MP for Kensington and Chelsea, former Minister of Defence and Foreign Secretary; Henry Porter, journalist, novelist and commentator; and Professor Ross Anderson, who holds a chair in Security Engineering at Cambridge University.

They will be talking about:

How the ID card scheme and the database behind it, the National Identity Register; will let the government into your life more than ever before[3];
How joining up computer systems for official convenience threatens your personal security [4] and that of your children [5];
How a ‘data-sharing’ system for the NHS [6] plans to make your most intimate medical details available to half a million people.

NO2ID volunteers and experts will be on hand to answer public and press questions about the details of the various government initiatives that make
up the ‘database state’. The meeting will also explain details of The Big Opt-Out [7] campaign, which aims to give the public and their GPs the tools
to protect medical confidentiality in the NHS.

Phil Booth, NO2ID’s National Coordinator said:

The Government would like to pretend all its critics are fringe loonies. Let them try that on with our distinguished guests today. People all over Britain are beginning to wake up to the database state that’s encroaching all around them. The message of this meeting is: it can be stopped, if only people stand up and say they have had enough.

-ENDS-

Notes for editors

1. “Civil liberty vs. the database state” at Lecture Theatre One, Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, Prince Consort Road, South Kensington, London SW7.
7.00pm – 9.00pm. Open to all. Entrance is free, but some seats will be reserved for press: contact Michael Parker (Press Officer,
press.officer@no2id.net) on 07773 376 166.

2. NO2ID is the national campaign against ID cards and the database state. It is independent of all political parties and principally funded by
voluntary donations. See http://www.no2id.net

3. The Identity Cards Act 2006 became law in April, and the government is due to issue an “Identity Management Action Plan” some time before Christmas explaining further how it proposes to nationalise control of individual identities. See: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39284202,00.htm
NO2ID’s call for the repeal of the Act is supported by all opposition parties except the UUP.

4. For example, the UK government has incorporated RFID-type chips into British passports. Yet the US Department for Homeland Security recently
concluded: “… for other applications related to human beings, RFID appears to offer little benefit when compared to the consequences it brings for privacy and data integrity. Instead, it increases risks to personal privacy and security, with no commensurate benefit for performance or national security.” – http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/privacy/privacy_advcom_rpt_rfid_draft.pdf

5. For example: “Report raises child index alarm”, Kablenet, 22 November 2006:
http://www.kablenet.com/kd.nsf/Frontpage/43F0BA555DC0E5DE8025722D005DDD84=?OpenDocument

6. The multi-billion pound Connecting for Health programme. See, for example: BBC, GPs threaten to snub NHS database – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6167924.stm
7. See http://www.TheBigOptOut.org/ – attendees will be urged to notify their GPs that they do not consent to their personal health information being uploaded to NHS central systems.

17 November 2006

NO2ID – in association with a number of security experts, including Adam Laurie of The Bunker [1] – has, as revealed today in The Guardian’s G2
supplement [2], demonstrated that the technology and security of the ‘biometric’ ePassport is fatally flawed. With a standard RFID reader bought over the internet for just £95.73, the campaign was able to prove that the same ‘contactless’ microchips that are also to be incorporated into ID cards will “dramatically decrease [citizens'] security and privacy, and increase risk of identity theft” [3].

Phil Booth, NO2ID’s [4] National Coordinator said:

By knowingly implementing technology in such an insecure fashion, under a smokescreen of ‘international obligation’, the government is clearly
derelict in its duty to protect the privacy and security of British citizens. It seems to care more about kow-towing to the US [5] than
protecting the people it was elected to serve.

This casual arrogance – “We can’t possibly be wrong” – combined with gross technical negligence [6] demonstrates precisely why it cannot be trusted to
impose a system of compulsory ID cards and state identity control on every adult in the country.

-ENDS-

Notes for editors:

1. Adam Laurie has led security initiatives in the computing industry since the 1980s and plays an active industry role in identifying and solving
security threats and problems across a wide variety of platforms and devices. He works for The Bunker – http://www.thebunker.net/

2. http://www.guardian.co.uk/idcards/story/0,,1950229,00.html and Steve Boggan in Guardian G2, 17/11/06, =91Cracked it!=92 -

http://www.guardian.co.uk/idcards/story/0,,1950226,00.html

3. FIDIS, Budapest declaration, 8/11/06: “Simply put, the current implementation of the European passport utilises technologies and standards that are poorly conceived for its purpose.” – http://www.fidis.net/press-events/press-releases/budapest-declaration/

4. NO2ID is the non-partisan national campaign against ID cards and the database state. See http://www.no2id.net

5. The UK government has incorporated RFID-type chips into British passports, submitting to US demands (US visa waiver scheme), whilst the US has yet to implement the very same technologies into US passports. The Department for Homeland Security recently concluded:

“… for other applications related to human beings, RFID appears to offer little benefit when compared to the consequences it brings for privacy and data integrity. Instead, it increases risks to personal privacy and security, with no commensurate benefit for performance or national security.”

http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/privacy/privacy_advcom_rpt_rfid_draft.pdf

6. E.g. any competent security expert could have prevented the ‘brute force’ attack NO2ID can demonstrate by the inclusion of a simple ‘lockout’ mechanism, such as used in chip & PIN bank and credit cards. The passport permits an infinite number of attempts to unlock it.

For immediate release

The Queen said today in her speech [1] from the throne at the State Opening of Parliament: “My government will put victims at the heart of the criminal justice system, support the police and all those responsible for the public’s safety, and proceed with the development of ID cards.”

Phil Booth, NO2ID’s [2] National Coordinator said:

The Home Office has been spending £3 million pounds per month on the ID cards programme since May, almost £60 million in total – but what does it have to show for all this? Precisely nothing: no business case, no tender documents, no specification.

And if the government hasn’t been “proceeding with the development” of ID cards up to now, then why has it wasted tens of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money?

The increasingly unbelievable claims of Tony Blair and his ministers just underline what a shambolic – but still dangerous – White Elephant the ID scheme has become. It should be terminated at once.

-ENDS-

Notes for editors:

1. http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page10419.asp

2. NO2ID is the non-partisan national campaign against ID cards and the database state. See http://www.no2id.net

3. Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost has been of developing and researching the proposed identity
cards scheme since the project’s inception. [84237]
Joan Ryan: Since the start of the financial year 2003-04 £58.2 million has been spent in total on the identity cards scheme up to the end of September
2006.
- Hansard, 8 Nov 2006 : Column 1672W

In May 2006 the figure was £46.4 million, so in just four months a further £11.8 million has been spent.