December 25, 2006
British ID Database Dropped
Silicon wrote earlier in the week that the UK ID card database, NIR (National Identity Register), has been ditched. This includes dropping the plan for iris-scan biometrics. There are still three systems sharing the same information; it just won't be one big database. Fingerprint and facial biometrics are also still part of the national ID plan, which will see the first cards being issued in 2009, with mass issuance in 2010.
This is an interesting turn for the UK, which some civil liberties group Privacy International has ranked as being as bad as China in Russia in terms of surveillance. Though this turnabout is still in risk of failure. I'm speculating here and am somewhat uninformed, but I'm wondering if this change of direction has anything to do with the fact the current Prime Minister Tony Blair's term is ending soon. Despite being a Labour Party leader, he took a very right-wing leaning.
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