Foundation of Trust
WRITTEN ON Saturday, July 18th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, Official fibbing/bad stats, We told you so..., What do we want?
Ben “Bad Science” Goldacre has a careful look at the evidence provided to justify DNA database policy by the Jill Dando Institute of Inappropriate Shroudwaving: In fact, this study from the Jill Dando Institute, attached to their consultation paper as an appendix, is possibly the most unclear and badly presented piece of research I have […]
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WRITTEN ON Thursday, July 16th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Data nitwittery, Foundation of Trust, Transformational Government, We told you so..., What do we want?
The database carrying the details of 11m children in the UK will be accessible by 390,000 users making the system highly vulnerable at thousands of endpoints. “Why the government has created this security headache in the first place, particularly when their track record on data handling raises serious questions, is something of a mystery”…said Richard […]
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WRITTEN ON Monday, July 13th, 2009 BY Sir Bonar Neville-Kingdom GCMG KCVO AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, Identity, What do we want?
Sir Bonar writes: The public needs to understand two things. First is that on their own people’s identities are inherently insecure. My own identity, for example, is Sir Bonar Neville-Kingdom GCMG, KCVO. Well and good, you might say. But what if some Tom, Dick or Harry, or perhaps an immigrant, shall we say from Albania […]
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WRITTEN ON Monday, July 13th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Data nitwittery, Foundation of Trust, Identity, Save Time and Money, What do we want?
Not only are our passports too expensive (cf €59 for the Irish); they leak our personal details through their insecure RFID chips. This is far from Ideal. This, it seems, is the device we need to cure the latter problem:
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WRITTEN ON Friday, July 10th, 2009 BY Ruth Kennedy AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, Identity, What do we want?
Hmm. Weird one. Would love an explanation and direction from the experts out there. Today I received this email: From: “Alan Olding” *alamo@waitrose.com* Date: 9 July 2009 11:57:26 GMT+01:00 To: Ruth Kennedy Subject: DVLA Prize draw Hi, What is the closing date for the DVLA SEAT IBIZA car please, it is not to be found […]
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WRITTEN ON Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, Identity, What do we want?
Oh great. Our passports (which cost IPS a few quid each from the outsourced contractor) are already absurdly expensive. And now Phil Woolas wants to make them even more expensive, including the pointless ones for children: Phil Woolas (Minister of State (the North West), Home Office; Oldham East & Saddleworth, Labour) Together with the Parliamentary […]
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WRITTEN ON Sunday, July 5th, 2009 BY Sir Bonar Neville-Kingdom GCMG KCVO AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, Identity, Transformational Government, What do we want?
Here is the text of a talk Sir Bonar delivered at the University College of London Open Tech event today: [check against delivery] Ladies and Gentlemen: My name is Bonar Neville-Kingdom. I’m very pleased to be invited to speak to you today at Opentech in my capacity as Her Majesty’s most senior civil servant concerned […]
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WRITTEN ON Friday, July 3rd, 2009 BY Harry Metcalfe AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, Identity, Transformational Government, What do we want?
We need to be able to authenticate ourselves online. The Government’s Identity Card scheme is in part an attempt to do this, and it’s really bad, but we do need some sort of system that offers more than traditional proofs of identity. I’ve just read Alan Johnson’s article at Comment Is Free. Other than to […]
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WRITTEN ON Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, Identity, What do we want?
Hurrah! In a step forwards for common sense and a step backward for the Benighted ID Scheme they’ve just scrapped compulsory ID Cards, and abandoned the airside workers scheme (Telegraph – Ian spotted it first) He said the cards will now only be issued to Britons on a voluntary basis meaning no one will ever […]
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WRITTEN ON Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 BY Richard S AND STORED IN Data nitwittery, Foundation of Trust, Identity, What do we want?
According to this report, Alan Johnson is abolishing compulsory ID Cards, starting with “air-side” airport workers. As always, the precise detail of this decision is crucial. But let’s hope that this decision marks the beginning of the end of the crazy ID project which has wasted so much money and so much valuable talent. Let’s […]
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