UK Can't Read Its Own ID Cards 205
An anonymous reader writes "Despite the introduction of ID cards last November, it has emerged that Britain has no readers that are able to read the cards' microchips, which contain the person's fingerprints and other biometric information. With cops and border guards unable to use the cards to check a person's identity, critics are calling the £4.7bn scheme 'farcical' and a 'waste of time.'"
Dad's Army (Score:5, Interesting)
Identity crisis (Score:4, Interesting)
Right now most bookmakers will give you very good odds on the current government actually being in power by the end of 2010. Since the other lot are supposedly going to get rid of the scheme, and there's been no large-scale rollout of the cards to the general population, it probably doesn't make a lot of sense to buy all the readers just now. Not that 'sense' really comes into this, of course.
It was never about reading the cards at the border (Score:5, Interesting)
It was about biometric databases, computer-recognizable photographs and humongous amounts of fingerprints.
Be careful (Score:5, Interesting)
It's easy, and quite tempting, to react to this news with patronizing contempt - and think, "Well, at least we're fairly safe - such a bunch of bunglers couldn't do any real harm".
Unfortunately, a look back at history reveals that appalling inefficiency and incompetence have usually gone hand-in-hand with authoritarian government. But whereas we can still laugh about it, the time may come when doing so is distinctly unwise. People made fun of Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini throughout their careers, and some got away with it. Others were arrested, beaten up, imprisoned, tortured, shot, or hanged with piano wire.
Re:Why is this news? (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, at least with BluRay and DVD, there were people who actually wanted them. Yes, really, these people did exist.
Now show me one border patrol person that is eager to get yet another thingamajig into their hands that means more work for the same pay?
Re:Where exactly are these cards? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:No readers? No surprise! (Score:3, Interesting)
On two seperate occaisions I've seen someone trying to use national ID cards as proof of age when buying alcohol. Both times they were refused because the staff didn't recognise the card.
The whole thing is a total waste of time and (our) money, all with the goal of filling a void that does not exist!
Re:"in response to an FoI request"?!? (Score:3, Interesting)
The Act is really good, and you can tell that because it is annoying [bbc.co.uk] the fuck [guardian.co.uk] out of the present government.