Why do so many people object to a national ID card?

Question

If you think it infringes on your civil liberties,please explain how.

Answer 1

Its not the fact it would infringe on my civil liberties, there's enough things which already do that, its the fact its not going to be compulsory to either carry with you or show to anyone who asks.
Whats the point of a ID card which isn't compulsory?

Answer 2

The I.D. cards as used up to the 1960's would probably not be a problem.It is the amount of info that can be stored on silicon chips which would be able to get into unauthorised hands that will concern many. Also how do all those who shouldn't be in the country get a card,some complicated forgery will be needed and that the cost of illegal cards would be extremely high at first. There will be some good rackets going on this. Id cards should have your name, photograph, national insurance number, blood group.Voluntary information such as I am diabetic/epileptic/HIV etc. There is talk that the proposed cards could track your movements this is nothing to do with identity.

Answer 3

I've no real principled objection to ID cards. I carry ID already for work, in the form of credit cards, all sorts of things. I just don't see what they intend to achieve by it. I don't see it as a civil liberties issue at all, just a practical one. It will cost £5 billion over the first 10 years, and for what? It won't help stop crime or terrorism - it will just criminalise a few nutters who want to make some 'principled stand' over their 'right' towalk the streets without documents.

Organised crime is waiting excitedly for ID cards to arrive - there's a fortune to be made in fake ID cards. If we have the technology, we're rather arrogant to believe that the criminals don't as well.

Answer 4

as a concept it's fine. It's the abuses the govt could commit with it that scares the hell out of people. An example would be that every time you went anywhere you might think you were in a old Nazi war movie when the man at the door asks papers please? The other problem is cost to make the system worth while all states computer systems would have to be compatible which currently they are not. federal computers can't talk to some state computers,some state computers can't talk to other departments in the same state. All that would have to be straightened out and that will cost billions and then there is the decision of which system they would use.

Answer 5

The primary fear expressed by those opposed to National ID cards is that government will always know where you are. Detractors emphasize the privacy traps awaiting an implementation. They raise issues pertaining to data aggregation and matching, citing the historical "function creep" of the Social Security number and eliciting imagery of the ID as an enabler of persecution and discrimination based on religious or ethnic background.

Someone of Arab descent, for example, could be flagged as a travel risk because they had visited an uncle in Iraq in 1999 given today’s political climate.

Answer 6

For me it is the fact that i am British and i can explain who i am to anyone who needs to know / they can do a simple check and verify this . However i do agree to there being some sort of i.d process for the genuine people who have came here to seek asylum . then something may be able to get done about the severe problem of illegal immigrant`s as when they are stopped they will not be able to prove who they are then they can be booted back to their place of origin .

Answer 7

Yes, it does infringe on civil liberties if it has an embedded tracking chip. That's the reason I won't upgrade my cel phone. One with a GPS chip and other unnecessary functions. No thank you.

Answer 8

I lived in japan where it is compulsary for foriegners to carry ID cards. I popped out for five minutes, forgot to take it with me, and was stopped by two police for crossing against a red light. Japanese people all around ignoring the red light, but the foriegner gets stopped.

I didn't have my ID card with me. all hell breaks loose. I am taken to the police station, jobsworth cops fall over themseleves to impress their boss, I am kept for 7 hours, my boss is called away from his golf course, I am escorted back to my flat, I find my card, show them ,then taken back to the station and given a lecture on the dangers of ignoring the law.

Everything is resolved because my boss calls in favours from city hall, I am allowed home eventually.

that is why I object to a national ID card. they are a tool for controling a population, and have absolutley nothing to do with terrorism.

Answer 9

Because there are so many dodgy people. There is absolutely nothing wrong with having a national identity card. It doesn't infringe on anyone's civil liberties, but I think it should be paid for by the Govt. instead of spending all that money fighting useless wars.

Answer 10

Privacy. We as a people have less freedoms now than we have ever had. This should bother people. I've never commited a crime in my long life, but I most certainly object to big government watching my every move and and and spending my hard earned money going over my library records, my interent usage, etc, etc, etc.