Welcome to the new series ‘Why You Should’nt Register at the NIR’, where we give examples of how your life will be impacted by obeying the ID card legislation.

This is from the Guardian:

TV Licensing knows you’ve bought a TV

Picture a world where innocent shopping transactions must be reported to the authorities, who can then persecute the shopper. Vicky Kennard wanted to buy a present for her mother-in-law and ordered a video and DVD player from Dixons. It was to be delivered directly to her mother-in-law’s address, but nevertheless Kennard – who does not own a television – was contacted soon afterwards by TV Licensing. She was told that Dixons had informed it of her purchase and that she must either buy a licence, prove someone else in the house had one, or provide the name and address of the person she had bought the video player for. “Surely under the Data Protection Act, Dixons had no right to pass on my details,” Kennard says. In fact, Dixons and all other dealers are required by the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1967 to provide TV Licensing with names and addresses of everyone who buys or hires TV-related equipment within 28 days of the purchase. Otherwise they face a fine.

Guardian

Now magnify this to everything you buy.

Someone somewhere, or even worse, some computer somewhere, will know what you have boutght and where, and then will tax you accordingly. This is already happening without a national ID card; imagine what they will be able to do with the system up and running.

And now, this illustrates once again, the dangers of insider shenanigans at the NIR:

Officer sold secrets to gangsters

Merseyside Police say O’Leary’s behaviour was ‘despicable’

A policeman who sold surveillance secrets to gangsters has been jailed for three-and-a-half years. Former Merseyside officer Gregory O’Leary, 39, gained information from force computers which was then sold to the underworld for £1,000 a time.

O’Leary, who drove a BMW with a personal number plate, admitted six counts of misconduct in office at an earlier Liverpool Crown Court hearing.

Mr Justice Openshaw said other officers would be “outraged by his treachery”.

The court heard O’Leary, who joined the force in 1985, could have made up to £80,000 from selling information.

BBQ

And there you have it. An insider selling access to private and sensitive information to the highest bidder. Now; imagine the NIR; the aladins cave of information on everyone. Imagine one insider who manages to get a copy of a large part of it. Such information would be worth much more than £80,000. Also, since this information is unique, every time this happens and the bulk data is copied, eventually it will be possible to create a mirror copy of the entire NIR database of biometric data. This data will never be out of date, since it is unique to each individual.

This sort of thing has happened before of course, specifically where the girlfriends of criminals got jobs with the sections of the police service dealing with computers so that their lovers could keep tabs on investigations.

You should not put your data into this system under any circumstances. As soon as you do it, you put yourself at risk, and of course, the more people who enter the register, the more valuable it becomes.

Finally, that BBQ article says that:

Mr Justice Openshaw said other officers would be “outraged by his treachery”.

Well, outraged is a llittle strong. It is a well known fact that ex police officers with friends still in the force check out people all the time. A little bird told me that she uses her friends in the force to check out potential tennants to see if they have criminal records or not. Once again, this abuse is happening right now, and the NIR will only make it worse.
Where is part one of this series you say? Why, its right here.

If you find an example that should appear in this series, email irdial@gmail.com

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 8th, 2006 at 8:22 pm and is filed under NIR.