Be Excellent To Each Other

"I regularly have people coming up to me and saying they don't want to wait that long."

Whilst we're waiting for replies, it seems the poor girl's going delirious about the identity card database scheme:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7712275.stm

There was a story about this in the London Lite last night, and four letters saying what a crap idea it is this evening.

El Reg: 'Jacqui Smith prints seized by No2ID in daring dabs grab'
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/06/smith_dabs_grab/

Good work, citizen.

Dear Mr Awesome,

Thank you for your email. I am sorry for the delay in getting back to
you but I wanted to research the topic properly before responding.

My starting point is slightly different to your own. I believe that the
true threat to our lives today is not the power of the state but rather
the privatisation of life with the prominence of large corporations and
financial institutions which have increasingly threatened the stability
of our society.

In terms of people living in the UK we now have greater protections than
ever before since the passing of the Human Rights Law and the Freedom of
Information Act. Whilst I would fear the assumptions made in your email
given the failure of most large database projects I would doubt the
practicalities of such an exercise ever reaching fruition even if there
was a will to do this but I can find no evidence of there being.

In terms of your particular points I totally agree with Lord Carlile and
would share your concern at any misuse of the Regulation of
Investigatory Powers Act but when I have followed this up the
accusations made about this seem in the main to be ill informed or
exaggerated.

Personally I feel that we need to move to a more transparent society so
that we can isolate those who want to do us harm whilst letting the rest
of us live in peace and harmony.

At the moment there is no plan nor even a real idea on what could or
should be encompassed but I will represent your views.

I was rather dismayed at your threat to vote Conservative given that
this will merely confirm the privatisation of life and further undermine
the state something I have always and continue to oppose.

I include a short article that I will be placing on my web site.

Yours sincerely



Labour Lackey, MP

ID Cards and the Communications Data Database

I have received several pieces of correspondence about a possible communications data database. The issue of how we deal with data and data security is an increasingly sensitive but nevertheless important for personal and national security.

I understand that people are uneasy about data being held in such a way and there is a great deal of speculation about who would hold what and where.

The possible communications data database would not hold the content of communication or mean that communication is being monitored but would be logging centrally of times and dates of communications, and the numbers or email addresses they are between. There are already databases in the private sector that hold personal information and I feel these need greater control & accountability.

I would stress that no decision has been made on this and it should be going out for consultation in the New Year. I know that there is scope for concern here and I feel that if any such database is to go ahead it needs to be heavily secured and regulated. However I feel that I would need to see the proposals in full first before I comment in detail.

Having served on the Committee for the original ID Cards Bill I have taken a close interest over this issue. For myself I have no problem with the concept of a simple ID card. I have argued for and voted for this to be one and the same as the passport which itself is being changed because of the need for greater intrinsic security. I remain sceptical whether there is a need for a large database to support this. However given that we have now introduced ID cards for foreigners we need to legitimise these by making sure that there is some comparability with British citizens. However we must make sure that this is properly accountable and that strict controls are in place on who can gain access to it and how it can be used.

There was a Communications Data Bill in the Government’s Draft Legislative Programme announced in May, one of the main points of the possible legislation was to “modify the procedures for acquiring communications data and allow this data to be retained.”

Further to this the Leader of the House, Harriet Harman MP, said on 16 October in the House that the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith MP had made it clear that this legislation, the Communications Data Bill, will not be brought forward next session because she wants time to consult. There may however be a draft bill or draft clauses published.

Jacqui Smith MP said in a speech on the threat of international terrorism to the Institute for Public Policy Research Commission on National Security on 15 October 2008 that there will be a consultation in the New Year on Communications Data at which she gave reassurances that there need to be further safeguards in place “to provide a solid legal framework which protects civil liberties.”

I would encourage people who are concerned about this to contribute to the consultation when it is available and to look at how this may be introduced.

You know, he does have a good point in there. All this information that we're worried about the government having, is already held and kept by private companies. Why are we more worried about the government having it?

My objection is it'll cost a fuckload of money and won't bloody work, just like every single other government big IT project of that last two decades. I don't particularly feel the need to line the pockets of IBM and EDS shareholders with my taxes, no matter how many swanky hotels and golf clubs they take the MPs to.

The database means that they've just sat at a computer terminal putting search terms into their database until your their googlewack and then you are fucked for no reason.

This won't happen though, I suspect, and I was being slightly glib. Tons of the post-9/11 post mortem reports from lots of international agencies said the same thing; they had some evidence that stuff was afoot but couldn't pick out the signal from the immense amount of intelligence they had gathered. This is just going to be more noise obscuring the same amount of signal.

They'll set the database up, set the loggers going, sit in front of the terminal, and then wonder what to do next. Then in a few years when it has produced no leads at all they'll mothball it. I mean, after all, what else can you do with it? How do you go fishing in such a massive fuckload of data? This thing is going to generate millions of data points a minute.

I'd like to see what MI5 and MI6 think of this database idea, preferably off the record. I wonder if they see any value in it.

At least your MP has an opinion.

Plus he can use Google to find his letter, dig up something controversial you've said on here and have you thrown in jail

I regret that until the consultation exercise has been conducted, the Government has considered the results and then published the Bill that it wishes Parliament to pass, there is little that I can comment upon.

All I can do in the interim is once again urge you to contribute to the consultation exercise that the Home Office intends to carry out.

RIPA used to, err, ensure that paperboys had a permission slip to work...

That's ridiculous. I was unable to see why that would be necessary at all, but in the article it does say that the owners repeatedly ignored visits from the local child employment officer.

In fairness, yes, but, at the time, it was apparent that BETEO would not reach its quota of "Up in arms! To the barricades!" number of posts, over sleights, imagined or real, for the day.