Anonymous

London

IT Consultant

This is abolutely spot on. The benefits of ID cards are dubious in the least and I believe the real goal is the database.

Do we really want the Inland Revenue to be able to see when we last saw a doctor or Customs and excise to check how many time we been in and out of the country in the last year? The temptation to share personal information between government agencies would be huge and is probably the main goal.

We've already had a glimpse of what may happen with the DVLA and the TV licencing authority. Both these agencies now use technology to prosecute people by default for offences that they used to have to have physical evidence. In the case of road tax evasion and TV licence evasion you used to have to be physically caught i.e. driving the car, or watching a TV with out the relevant documentation. Now they can investigate you by default from database records, the actual paper is practically irrelevant. Moreover this usually only penalises the more law abiding citizen who actually registers his car in his own name. Determined criminals bypass the system all together. So we have in effect a tax on the forgetful rather than tool against the determined criminal. How much farther will this sort of thing go when all departmental database are linked or merged into one?