Press cutting: Who owns your identity?

Professor Angela Sasse, Head of Human-Centred Technology, UCL: "When it comes to the government holding a biometric database of citizens, people are, in the majority, against it: they do not trust the government's motivation on how the information will be used and they do not trust the government's ability to keep that data safe. …

"I think the reality is that without 9/11 we would not have seen this rush to roll out biometrics on such a large scale. A technology that is relatively immature and which has not been tested in depth is being rolled out and this involves disadvantages for citizens. …

"Germany has decided not to establish a biometric database of its citizens. Biometrics are going to be stored on the document itself and the holder has the document. Germany has decided that, with the risks that are involved with the database and also in terms of preserving trust in the process, it is essential that the government does not hold a full database. …

"What the government is proposing for the National Identity Register is unprecedented in western Europe. If you proposed this system in the United States, people would be rather aghast. …

"It would require an unprecedented level of competence to roll out such a large-scale IT scheme and, frankly, the government has no form on it. I have not heard a single squeak from the Home Office or government about what they are going to do different, so that the problems we have had with tax credits, the CSA [Child Support Agency] and the National Programme for IT, are not going to bedevil a system that will have a serious impact on people's lives. …

"Does it really lead to improved security? You have limited resources to spend on improving security and, at some point, there will come the question of whether you spend it on additional intelligence officers who trail suspects around, or whether you spend it on the technology. If you have to drop surveillance on people who you already know you should be worried about, such as happened prior to 7/7, because you do not have the money, then we have to ask the question: 'Is it the technology that gives us better security?' …

"In Europe you have compulsory local registration laws. In most countries, within three days of moving, you have to register, either with the local authority or the police. These are the people who you go to to apply for a passport or for an identity card, which means that you have got a fairly resilient bureaucratic system. That system does not exist in the UK. The quality of the documents that you are verifying identity against is completely different to what you have in those countries."

New Statesman, 15 January 2007