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Post by Watchman on Jan 29, 2006 15:34:11 GMT -5
By Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor (Filed: 28/01/2006)
Anti-ID cards campaigners accused the Home Office yesterday of misleading parliament and the public over plans to include radio tracking devices in ID cards.
Only last month, Andy Burnham, the Home Office minister, said in a parliamentary written answer that there were "no plans to use radio frequency identification (RFID) tags in ID cards".
However, a leaked letter from Mr Burnham indicates that the chips will use radio frequencies to allow "contactless" reading of the card by special scanners.
The Home Office said the signals emitted would be picked up only at a distance of a few inches. But Phil Booth, co-ordinator of the No2ID campaign, said receivers could easily be boosted to receive signals from much further away. This would allow anyone carrying the card to be tracked in the street or entering a building.
Mr Booth said that unlike normal RFID technology, which simply broadcast a number as a means of identifying an individual holder, the chips envisaged for use would transmit personal details.
He added: "This technology will make the cards a snooper's paradise. It is outrageous for the Government to conceal this from the public and try to deny it in parliament."
However, he said that since there would be no legal requirement to carry the cards, the people that the police most wanted to keep tabs would not be picked up if they took the simple precaution of leaving the card at home.
Mr Burnham said the radio technology was being introduced to meet international regulations enabling identity documents to be read by scanners at airports. It was "nonsense" to suggest the frequencies could be used to monitor people's movements.
"This kind of scaremongering is designed to whip up fears about the ID cards scheme. I hope people will see it for what it is."
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2006.
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Post by Watchman on Jul 8, 2006 11:17:05 GMT -5
Immigration Laws Broken, Says Bloomberg, Suggests Biometric Employment Cards
New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's office today issued a release of the mayor's prepared testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee's field hearing on federal immigration legislation.
"Today, we remain a nation of immigrants," said Bloomberg. "People from around the world continue to come here seeking opportunity, and they continue to make America the most dynamic nation in the world. But it's clear we also have a problem on our hands -- our immigration laws are fundamentally broken.
"It's as if we expect border control agents to do what a century of communism could not," continued Bloomberg, "defeat the natural market forces of supply and demand and defeat the natural human desire for freedom and opportunity. You might as well sit in your beach chair and tell the tide not to come in."
He went on to say the New York City is home to more than 3 million immigrants, with half a million coming illegally. "And let's be honest: they arrive for a good reason -- they want a better life for themselves and their families, and our businesses need them and hire them!
"Although they broke the law by illegally crossing our borders or overstaying their visas -- and our businesses broke the law by employing them -- our city's economy would be a shell of itself had they not, and it would collapse if they were deported. The same holds true for the nation.
"We absolutely must have a federal database, said Bloomberg, "that will allow employers to verify the status of all job applicants. But for this database to have any value, we must also ensure that the documentation job applicants present is incorruptible. That means we need to create a biometric employment card containing unique information -- fingerprints or DNA, for instance."
Bloomberg continued, saying that job seekers would be required to have such a card, as relying on Social Security cards is "way behind the times."
The mayor's complete testimony is online.
News release
Copyright® 2005 e.Republic, Inc. All rights reserved
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