Journalist, editor, analyst and trainer on computing, government, climate and data
If the Conservative Party wants to scrap identity cards, it should also scrap or reduce plans to fingerprint passport applicants, argues SA Mathieson
As the general election neared, Conservative and LibDem opposition to identity cards made their future look doubtful. However, it was harder to see whether a new government would keep fingerprints for passports. In the event, the coalition scrapped them as well as ID cards.
All articles on ID cards. Continue reading “The myths of the fingerprints”
The Identity and Passport Service has announced the impending awards of two of the National Identity Scheme’s main contracts to CSC and IBM
This interview showed that the Identity and Passport Service, responsible for delivering the national identity scheme, was carefully planning for a future without ID cards in April 2009. All articles on ID cards here.
Continue reading “CSC and IBM win ID contracts”
First published in Health Service Journal, 8 September 2005
Across continental Europe, patients visiting a doctor take a plastic card to prove their entitlement to healthcare. Increasingly, these cards hold a microchip allowing payments for treatment to be processed and if necessary refunded more quickly than in the past.
But smartcards can also be used as electronic keys to patient records, boosting security and demonstrating consent.
Continue reading “Smart move: use of health smartcards in EU countries”
The plethora of illegal pornography on the internet requires international policing. Is web technology up to tracking offenders, asks SA Mathieson
On Home Office plans to criminalise the possession of extreme adult pornography. Continue reading “Image control”
The London bombings have intensified the debate over the government’s plans to introduce compulsory identity cards. SA Mathieson reports
The plans discussed here were broadly those which entered law through the Identity Cards Act 2006. I wrote about identity cards from 2002 until 2011, and have published a history of ID cards in Britain: more information here.
Continue reading “In the name of the law”
