Protest over ID card pilot scheme

From BBC NEWS | Scotland:

Campaigners in Glasgow have shown their opposition to the new national identity card pilot scheme.

Volunteers are being invited to sign up to have their irises, fingerprints and facial biometrics recorded as part of the UK Passport Service (UKPS) trial.

It's not new. We've had ID cards before, we have ID cards now. The difference with the new cards is that it is now all too possible to store more than just our names DOBs, gender and addresses. These cards are linked to a huge database where infos such as our medical history, our allergies, to even our purchasing and communication habits can be stored. Think of the places where you've had to show your ID, think of what you do there, and think of the possibility of that action, that place, that time, recorded by the government for "future use."

The governments have their own reasons. Such degree of police powers is required to combat crime, prevent tax evasion and frauds, provide better healthcare service. But stiil, there's an alarm ringing in my head screaming that this ID card thingy may not be all good.

Other nations have certainly already started their programs before the UK. Taiwan has completed its deployment of a Java-based ID card last year to store health information for its 22 million citizens. Thailand, has also started using Java-based National ID cards for its 61 million citizens. Brazil is another country that has used Java-card based systems for their national healthcare system.