London terrorist attacks heat up identity card debate and highlight uncertainties over their efficacy

Abstract

The terrorist attacks in London have stoked up the debate over the UK Government's identity card scheme, and highlighted the central issue of whether they would actually make such incidents less likely. Yet it is not just core privacy activists who continue to argue that any benefits will be outweighed by the growth of surveillance and snooping that would inevitably in their view occur once the scheme is up and running. A counter argument is that the cat is already out of the bag, and that we will live under a canopy of increasing surveillance and leakage of personal information whether or not identity cards come in. According to this argument, biometric passports, combined with growing databases of personal information relating to health, life style and identity, held by both government and private agencies, will ensure that privacy will be eroded come what may. The technologies, such as rapid and affordable DNA sequencing, proliferating and increasing cross-linked databases comprising personal information, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), as well as improved video cameras, are or will be out there anyway, all threatening to invade privacy in various ways.