Sweden was an early adopter of identity cards and individual identity numbers. This has had the effect that few people today actually question the ability of technology to invade privacy. The EU Commission has decided that Europe is to move towards biometric passports within three years. Not surprisingly Sweden has said nothing. The UK on the other hand has been active in the discussion against ID cards with anti-ID card campaigns and organisations (such as NO2ID). An unfavourable report was presented in 2005 by researchers at the London School of Economics.
The UK concerns about privacy seem a bit odd considering the amount of CCTV employed in surveillance รข?? it just goes to show that accepting (?) one form of privacy invasion does not mean that people are prepared to accept them all.
In Canada The Globalization of Personal Data Project (GPD) in association with the Surveillance Project at Queen’s University will be holding an interesting workshop: National ID Card Systems to be held in June 7-9 2007. Abstracts due 21 August.
(via Square Lips, Purse Jaw)