If you've nothing to hide and you're a law abiding citizen, then why do you disagree with ID cards in the UK? So what if you believe Big Brother is watching? After all, don't you already have a passport?
2007-02-27 10:42:31 · 20 answers · asked by drcswalker 2 in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
The "nothing to hide" argument is bunkum. The point is that you have a right to privacy.
Okay, so let's pretend for a moment that the billions of pounds the system will cost to implement is actually worthwhile and wouldn't be better used tending to our dying healthcare and education systems.
Let's say that your personal data is stored in a 'secure' (quotes used due to the appalling security track record our government has) system which can only be accessed by duly authorised people. For those people, what's to stop them looking up their co-workers in a moment of boredom? What about their spouse? What about you? Why do they have a right to know everything about you? The impression that only 'government agencies' have access to your data is incorrect. Those agencies are made up of people, and people are universally nosy.
And even then, what good does it do? The prototype cards have already been successfully duplicated with relatively inexpensive equipment. Having a single definitive source of identification - and particularly one of this type - makes it easier for a determined criminal to forge their identity, not harder.
If you've got nothing to hide, then surely you'll have no problem supplying me with your bank statements, email and phone records for the last 6 years.
2007-02-27 11:03:15 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 0⤋
Get real - if you are in the Uk, you should know that for afew pounds, you can get a "passport", National Insurance number and most other important documents to stay illegally in this country. ID cards will be the same - just another rip off by the British Government to pay for the wars that the yankies keep dragging us into. I don't buy into the idea that if you have nothing to hide ID cards are not a problem - with the UK government, you do have a problem - they cannot be trusted.
2007-02-27 10:53:25 · answer #2 · answered by Bexs 5 · 3⤊ 0⤋
you don't have to carry a passport with you wherever you go. i have nothing to hide (well, nothing illegal) i am a law abiding citizen but the thought of ID cards is repugnant to me. big brother is already watching enough (there are enough cctv cameras out there for that). i disagree with id cards because it infringes on my civil liberties. i don't want to be told i must have a card which i must carry round at all times. think about the implications and what could happen.
passports are faked, why wouldn't an id card? the amount of bureaucracy involved would be ludicrous and it's just all too stupid and horrible to contemplate for long or my head hurts and i feel desperately sorry for the world.
2007-02-27 10:53:10 · answer #3 · answered by aria 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
That's a great question!
Some people see it has an infringement on their right to choose! carrying a passport isn't compulsory. Stubborn lot us Brits! Our freedom to privacy is deeply ingrained! Some seem to think that the Police are going to be stopping them and asking to see their ID all the time like it was in the war!
I realised a while ago, for years we've carried ID cards! Willingly! Driving Licenses or Traceable Bank or Organ Donor Cards! Big Brother already sees us on CCTV sometimes even outside our homes (and that has caught enough real criminals to convince me its worth it!!) We should all know the Police haven't the man-power to walk the streets picking on the innocent among us!
Wake up people! We gave away our freedom for convenience but How often have you been stopped by the police?
Start asking! Why do Mr Blair & Co stir you up about this irrelevent issue?
2007-02-27 11:44:14 · answer #4 · answered by willowGSD 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It is not a question of having nothing to hide,the question should be where do they go next. Once the state enforces the carrying of these all singing all dancing ID cards, will you be required to swipe them going into a pub,shop,garage boarding a bus or a train,even to enter a town or city.The murderers on the underground and Smith square all carried some form of ID. So the criminal reason for ID cards is lost.This is the main argument being put forward by BLAIR and if he wants them they must be wrong>
2007-02-27 14:23:42 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
The point is I DO have something to hide - its called my PRIVACY.
I do not want government officials and sneering bureaucrats knowing every little facet of my life and willfulling exchanging this information among their corporate interests.
There will be up to FIFTY personal details about you included on these cards, and that's just the beginning.. there are of course plans to expand the amount of information so practically EVERY detail of your entire life is collected and stored on a government database for their perusal.
Plus you will be forced to pay £120 (roughly) for the privilege or face a £2,000 fine and then prison. I find this outrageous, insulting and a complete violation of my rights. You don't have a problem with this?!
If Blair said it was a legal requirement to have CCTV in every room of your house would you object? I mean you got nothing to hide, right?!
2007-02-27 11:08:05 · answer #6 · answered by Buck Flair 4 · 5⤊ 0⤋
ID cards aren't just ID cards.
They are containers of infomation about you that you dont even know.
I dont have a thing to hide from anyone, but why would I want someone to be able to read my DNA, or my thumbprint, or my retina, or know my date of birth, address and mother and father from the swipe of a card.
And dont make a mistake, these cards are planned with biometrics.
They are also the first step toward keeping everything about you in one place.
Bank cards, credit cards, drivers licence, television licence, gas bills, everything I said earlier and more.
Yeah, its handy.
What if you lose it?
But aside from that, I have no problems with the essence of an ID card. I wouldn't care if it was literally just an ID card. Its the infomation they want on it I'm against.
2007-02-27 11:00:50 · answer #7 · answered by Bloke Ala Sarcasm 5 · 4⤊ 0⤋
I don't object to having a national identity, to having my person officially recognised. Nor do I object to a rationalisation of all the various different government databases on which I'm registered (passport, customs and revenue, driving license, etc.....)
All of this seems sensible and useful. BUT this is not what the national ID card scheme is being mooted as.
The proposed scheme, instead of saving money and resources is the most expensive single IT project ever taken anywhere!!!
Yet still doesn't rationalise any other databases, instead they all have to be massively upgraded in order to refer to the new mega database.
The plastic cards in your wallet will do what exactly? I have yet to have someone explain to me in detail or by example, how exactly they will prevent crime.
A sensible, rationalisation of databases in order to cut costs and improve accuaracy? Yes!
An incredibly expensive and functionally useless piece of plastic? No!
2007-02-27 11:05:28 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Oh dear - it's back to only the guilty have anything to fear is it ? If I have a passport (and I do) it also means I have plenty of ID already besides my driving licence etc etc .
I don't want to be in a position where I have to produce my papers if I have done nothing wrong.
This was a free country.
2007-02-27 11:42:58 · answer #9 · answered by LongJohns 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
maybe you like to live in a totalitarian regieme but i dont. it is people like you that give away the freedoms of people like me. it will get to a point where your every movment will be tracked and stored for the goverment. What would be the diffrence between a dictatorship and the proposals put forward by liberal madmen. if you want an id card fine but dont push it on Me.
2007-02-27 10:53:15 · answer #10 · answered by mowhokman 4 · 3⤊ 0⤋