The Scottish ID Cards Scandal:
Campaign News

EDINBURGH campaigners have mounted a protest against the introduction of a Scottish Entitlement Card...

They say the card, which has replaced things like bus passes for the elderly and disabled, poses a "threat to civil liberties"...

[John Welford's] views were supported by Green MSP Patrick Harvie, who said: "Many people welcome the entitlement card to help them access public services, but it was never parliament's intention to set up the first phase of a National Identity Register."

Such a database is not only expensive and unnecessary; it also flies in the face of the position parliament took when it agreed the motion against ID cards."

http://forum.no2id.net/viewtopic.php?t=18187

To popular acclaim, the Scottish Executive introduced free nationwide bus travel for pensioners. All they had to do was return their old bus pass and sign up for a new Scottish Entitlement Card. Well, why not? What's the difference?...

There will be records of where you travel, what you read, what you do in your spare time. All these records will be tied together by the number on your Entitlement Card, the index to a "Citizens Account''. An account is being created for every person in Scotland. There are undoubtedly good reasons for recording all of these data, but do we really want databases to know so much about us? It was never previously necessary for the government to track the movements of pensioners. Who will have access to these data? What will they do with the information?...

NO2ID are not opposed to free bus travel or library cards, but these Citizens Accounts are being implemented without regard for basic data protection principles. The Scottish Government has a duty to protect our privacy. Until it does, I would not advise anyone to accept an Entitlement Card.

What price a free bus pass? To journey blindly towards a database state? Protect your privacy: say no to ID.

http://forum.no2id.net/viewtopic.php?t=18351

EVERY adult Scot is to be offered a controversial smart card to access council services as part of an expansion of the use of electronic information.

As part of a move described by a Scottish Government official (in 2002) as the "tip of the iceberg", the 'National Entitlement Card' will store personal details and could potentially be used to access healthcare and to pay for public transport...

ID card sceptics said that the scheme was another step towards a "surveillance state".

Geraint Bevan, the spokesman for NO2ID Scotland, said: " In the past they have promised opt-outs to cards and to data being shared.

"What happens if or when they scrap these opt-outs." John Scott, the director of the Scottish Human Rights Centre, said: "I don't think you have to be cynical to believe this is a bad idea...

But a Confederation of Scottish Local Authorities spokesperson insisted this was an entitlement card, not an ID card.

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1481482007

Scottish government excluded from discussions

A CROSS-BORDER spat erupted last night over new Home Office plans for compulsory ID cards in Scotland.

The Sunday Herald can reveal that the UK government is considering fast-tracking the project by using the micro-chipped bus passes held by more than a million Scots. Whitehall officials have set up a working group which will look at how to piggyback the National Identity Register (NIR) on to the Executive's entitlement card scheme.

Last night the Scottish government claimed it had been excluded from crucial discussions and warned that any data-grab attempt would be illegal...

The influential London think-tank New Local Government Network (NLGN) also claimed the cards could soon be ready for use to document citizens' mental health and their "reporting a crime, attending an accident and emergency department or claiming benefits".

The revelation will spark fury among ministers at Holyrood who have vowed not to link devolved public services to ID cards, a position agreed with former home secretary Charles Clarke...

The Scottish smartcards have already provoked controversy since they were launched as a bus pass for pensioners and the disabled in 2006. Each micro-chipped piece of plastic is linked to a Citizen's Account, a computerised register which provides an index to every public service used by the holder.

Geraint Bevan, spokesman for No2ID Scotland, said: "We have been proved right: entitlement cards are nothing more than ID cards by another name. The SNP ... have to realise that when they won the election they inherited an unfolding Labour plan to introduce ID cards by stealth."

http://tinyurl.com/269okk

The Trojan Horse ID Card - ACT NOW!

If you care about your freedoms and liberties you should read this information leaflet very carefully - and then make sure that your political representatives know the truth about what is happening at present and will take urgent action - NOW...

The very dark side of this picture is that this card and its associated central database will bring about ‘cradle to grave’ surveillance. In such a world the state and its civil servants (inevitably, as well as internet criminals) will have ready access to every detail about you and your personal life: where you travel, what books you read, what illnesses you suffer from, your educational record, where you shop, what you buy - and indeed anything else the government thinks it might find useful.

And to think that all this will have developed from a harmless looking ‘bus pass’, first issued by a duplicitous government in 2006...

The 2 page leaflet can be downloaded from:  leaflet.pdf (908Kb)

Motion S3M-1017 - Civil Liberties, Margaret Smith ( Edinburgh West, LD), incorporating amendment S3M-1017.2 from Patrick Harvie (Glasgow, Green)

That the Parliament believes that the fundamental liberties enjoyed by generations of our citizens must not be eroded; welcomes the commitment by the previous Scottish Executive that ID cards would not be needed to access devolved services and its proportionate position on DNA retention; is concerned at the threat to civil liberties from the UK Government's expensive and unworkable proposal to introduce compulsory ID cards; believes that the Scottish Government should not put citizens' privacy at risk by allowing the UK ID database to access personal information held by the Scottish Government, local authorities or other devolved public agencies; therefore calls on the Scottish Government to ensure that all data protection procedures comply with the principles of data protection, namely that personal information must be fairly and lawfully processed, processed for limited purposes, adequate, relevant and not excessive, accurate and up to date, not kept for longer than necessary, processed in line with individuals' rights, secure and not transmitted to other countries without adequate protection, and that audit of data under its jurisdiction is independent of government and accountable to the Parliament; further calls on the Scottish Government to review plans for Scottish Citizens Accounts on the basis of these principles, and takes the view that there should be no blanket retention of DNA samples and that the Assistant Information Commissioner for Scotland should have specific powers to carry out spot checks on the compliance by Scottish government agencies and bodies with the Data Protection Act 1998.

Motion agreed to: For 64, Against 1, Abstensions 60.

(My emphasis)

Debate

Voting

I NOTE that in your piece about the new ticket machines to be installed on the Lothian Buses fleet you refer to the new free national pensioner' cards as "concessionary travel cards" (News, January 4).

This is quite untrue. The cards are also not "bus passes", as commonly referred to by pensioners. In reality they are multi-purpose entitlement cards, which in other countries would be referred to as "identity cards".

The truth is that Scottish pensioners have been issued with identity cards, but remain totally unaware of it.

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/letters/This-Big-Issue-action-plan.3645511.jp

For the past two years Labour's Scottish Executive in Edinburgh has carried out an ID card experiment on the million elderly and disabled people of Scotland. Deeming this a success, Labour is now rolling the thing out in England.

Most will be familiar with Transport for London's Oystercard - a chipped "smartcard" that can track individual journeys. The Labour government has taken the Oystercard idea one crucial step further - by turning it into a full-blown multi-purpose identity card.

Unfortunately, they have decided not to tell anyone about this. Well, why risk frightening people! So the elderly were carefully led to believe that they were merely being issued with a new type of bus pass. Indeed, a much improved bus pass, because it would allow free travel anywhere in Scotland.

But the shocking truth is that Scottish pensioners were grossly misled. They were not issued with bus passes, but with one of the most intrusive identity cards to be found on the planet, a card which threatens to bring about cradle-to-grave surveillance.

The advanced database and identification technology involved in the cards would be forbidden in Germany, a country which actually uses ID cards.

This represents a massive scandal, but to date few know about it. With similar cards about to surface in England (on 1 April) it can only be a matter of time before the news breaks.

http://www.peacenews.info/issues/2494/2494041.html

Efforts to push through a proof-of-age card for young people in Scotland have been slammed by civil liberties campaigners as the introduction of ID cards "by the back door"...

John Welford, of campaign group NO2ID, said: "It’s a Trojan horse. An entitlement card in any other country is an ID card, and in other European countries, they are much more wary of the databases behind it. It is an opportunity to get young people into a database system. The government are sleepwalking us into a surveillance society of the worst kind. It's ID cards by the back door."

Human Rights lawyer John Scott added: "Some people have been accused of paranoia, but there is evidence that travel and entitlement cards have expanded beyond their stated limited purpose.

"Any proof-of-age scheme for everyone under 26 is potentially a way of softening people up for ID cards. It would be like trialling the poll tax in Scotland, with young people as the target audience.”...

Green Party MSP Robin Harper said there would have to be "strict controls" over use of the information stored on the cards.

http://forum.no2id.net/viewtopic.php?t=21407

AN organisation opposed to the introduction of identity cards is to hold information sessions at the Scottish Parliament.

The NO2ID campaign will hold two events at Holyrood on April 17 for MSPs and parliamentary researchers in a bid to highlight similarities between entitlement cards in Scotland and the thinking behind ID cards.

A spokesman for the campaign said: "The information sessions will highlight extensive similarities between the current implementation of the Scottish Entitlement Card Scheme and the proposed UK identity scheme."

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/edinburgh/Protesters-hold-antiID-events.3957293.jp

This [analysis] raises the following policy questions:

1. Given the open-ended scope of the integrated Scottish National Entitlement Card and Scottish Citizens' Account system, and the absence of alternatives once applied to a service, do we already have in place ID cards which are “needed to access devolved services”?

2. With the loss of public trust in government handling of personal information, is mere compliance with Data Protection legislation sufficient? Information security is not the same as protecting privacy.

3. How might Scotland capture public service efficiencies without sacrificing privacy and contributing - inadvertently or otherwise - to the database state? Why do identification when authentication will suffice?

The 3 page briefing paper can be downloaded from:  3cards.pdf (2.2Mb)