One of the worrying things about ID cards is the idea that putting all of those personal details together in one database is just asking for trouble when unscrupulous people get hold of the contents of that database. Of course. it doesn’t help when those unscrupulous people happen to be the people who are running the database.
Personal details of all 44 million adults living in Britain could be sold to private companies as part of government attempts to arrest spiralling costs for the new national identity card scheme, set to get the go-ahead this week.
The Independent on Sunday can today reveal that ministers have opened talks with private firms to pass on personal details of UK citizens for an initial cost of £750 each.
(From the Independent on Sunday)
Well, at least the original Orwellian Big Brother was motivated by power — not by greed.
Just to play devil’s advocate here, is there actually a valid argument in favour of making the information in the database commercially available?This argument would probably run along the lines of allowing marketers to more carefully target their offerings to people who would actually be interested. This would make business more efficient, good for the economy, jobs, supporting small business, etc, etc.If anyone doubts the level of data currently available on people, I suggest a quick trip to http://www.experian.co.uk and clicking on the Business Services link.