ID cards the real danger in 'database state'

Published on Tuesday 15 July 2008 10:29

Do Google's latest plans pose a threat to our liberty, asks John Welford.

I HAVE to say that I am in two minds about Google Street View, the new web facility which may be incorporating Edinburgh shortly. This is an imaginative extension to the already impressive Google Maps facility, and it represents a truly mind-boggling advance in technology.

At the same time I hate the very idea of a surveillance society, a world in which there will be minimal privacy and "no place to hide". But what has this to do with Street View?

Clearly, there will be some people who will not mind having close-up images of their neighbourhoods, houses – and even themselves – easily viewable on the web. But there are others for whom this could be extremely dangerous – for example, a person on a witness protection programme or else a woman and her children trying to hide from a former violent partner and parent.

We must always, therefore, be looking for a way of using new technologies which is proportionate, humane and citizen-friendly and does not risk our safety or invade our privacy. Unfortunately, the recent record has not been good. Without doubt the worst example took place last November when the two government CDs went missing, along with key personal and banking information for half the UK population.

However, I must stress that the greatest threat to our privacy will come with the introduction of compulsory identity cards and the associated "database state".

What you will really have to fear is the allocation to you of a Unique Person Number and then the linkage together into one vast multi-database structure of every scrap of information that the state holds on you: health, family, education, employment, property, finance and tax, state benefits, travel, libraries, leisure, etc. This will bring about cradle-to-grave surveillance.

Google Street View I can live with so long as appropriate safeguards are scrupulously incorporated. But as for compulsory ID cards and the database state, this country must never go down that route.

&#149 Dr John Welford is Edinburgh co-ordinator for the NO2ID campaign