Richard's Kingdom

There are now over 10,000 Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras covering the UK road network. These are capable of recording, recognising and tracking your car by its numberplate. The data from the cameras is collated and stored at a national centre run on behalf of the private, profit-making company ACPO, where it is held [...]

Last Friday I travelled to London to see a talk by security visionary and cryptographer Bruce Schneier. The event was a fund-raiser for the Open Rights Group, and was chaired by its Executive Director, Jim Killock. His was not a demanding role. The capacity crowd of disciples, many of whom were also ORG supporters, needed [...]

The UK National Identity Card can be cloned and altered by IT security experts.
Colour me unsurprised.
The consultants who carried out this work are from the same community of experts who have been warning [pdf] that the cards would be cracked since the Home Office first disclosed the mechanics of the scheme.
The alterations can be detected [...]

Dear Richard Caborn MP,
In recent days the Home Secretary has announced that airside workers at Manchester and City airports will no longer be compelled to enroll with the National Identity Register as a condition of their continued employment. This news has been presented as a pledge that Identity Cards will never be compulsory for UK [...]

To: Alan Powell, Editor, The Star
Dear Sir
James Hall is wrong to claim ID cards will be voluntary (Letters, 10 June).
Sheffield residents won’t be forced onto the National Identity Register directly, unless they’re from outside the European Economic Area, however the Government intends to make it impossible for us to live without an ID card.
Compulsion will [...]