As you know I love the ID Card; in fact I love the idea so much I think I will try and get two.
However, today’s blog is inspired by my reading of the document “Identity Cards Act Secondary Legislation: a response to the Consultation”, published by the IPS in May 2009. Within a discussion about safeguards it says:
“It has also been asked whether the National Identity Registration Number will be considered a 'general identifier' and accordingly an order made under the Data Protection Act 1998 to reflect this. Given the limited nature of the initial rollout of the Service and that the National Identity Registration Number will not be printed on the card, it is the Government’s view that the National Identity Registration Number could not be considered a general identifier at present. However, it is still intended that it will be designated as such in due course, once identity cards have been issued in greater numbers”.
I am sure this response has been prompted by submissions to the consultation process that promoted the designation of the National Identity Registration Number as a General Identifier as being a safeguard.
I have to say that this view is wrong. All the Data Protection Act does is to provide powers for the Secretary of State to order that general identifiers “are not to be treated as processed fairly and lawfully unless they are processed in compliance with any conditions so prescribed in relation to general identifiers of that description”. So if there is an Order, the processing of the designated General Identifier becomes fair and lawful.
So a harmless Statutory Instrument on the lines that “the National Identity Registration Number shall only be processed for purposes that are necessary in the public interest” seems a limitation. However, because of the breadth of the definition of “necessary in the public interest” in the ID Card Act 2006, it would mean that the Number would be used by the obvious agencies (police, immigration and national security) but additionally “for the purposes of the enforcement of prohibitions on unauthorised working or employment” and “for the purpose of securing the efficient and effective provision of public services”.
Note the last two. The National Identity Registration Number could be processed by all employers in vetting and checking, and by all public authorities in respect to the efficient and effective provision of their public services. If processed, therefore, the Number would provide links between many public and private sector databases.
This potential explains why the National Identity Registration Number is so problematic, and more importantly, why being a “General Identifier” is not necessarily a safeguard!
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