UK: Secret services to be given access to ID card database

"The intelligence services will be given unprecedented access to the government database underpinning the controversial identity card scheme, the Home Office said yesterday, prompting accusations of Big Brother-style surveillance of people's everyday lives.

"The plan emerged as David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, announced 'refinements' to his ID card proposals, saying that the central register containing the cards' information would provide a 'full audit trail' of when and where they were used. This could include every time holders use public services -- including hospitals, benefits offices or colleges -- buy an expensive item or make large withdrawals from banks.

"The Home Office insisted that only the security services, such as MI5 and MI6, and not police or government officials, would be allowed to access the data.

"But a spokesman for Liberty, the civil liberties organisation, said: 'It's very easy to say today that only intelligence services could access this information. But they can't say that would be the case in five years' time. Once the information is in the system, it's open to misuse'." [my emphasis]

Continue at The Independent