Only stupid people frown - Dave Evans
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ID card contest takes no losers
THE COMPETITION to find companies to build the UK's Identity Card Scheme looked like a shoe-in today when the Home Office gave all five bidders a taste of the £5 billion business.
They also won a blank cheque each for related business from other government departments without having to go through the palaver of another official " competition" under EU rules every time.
The five bidders will form the Strategic Supplier Group, and will between them divvy up the design of the Identity Cards system, which will allow the government to check if people are who they say they are, and to track their movements in a database.
The five suppliers lined up to trough on the ID coffers were CSC, EDS, Fujitsu, IBM, and Thales. Only these five suppliers competed for the five available places. Another three shortlisted firms (Accenture, Bae Systems and Steria) had already dropped out of the "competition" in January. That would not stop them subcontracting work from the five lead suppliers, as usually happens.
The Identity and Passport Service said the suppliers would also be able to work for other government departments, doing unspecified work, under the same contract, or framework agreement.
"The group of suppliers under the framework contract can also be accessed by other agencies," said an IPS statement.
For example, it said, the UK Border Agency would use the framework to, " procure services for the improvement of its case worko perations" (sic).
The ID scheme has been beset with controversy over its true cost to the tax payer since its inception. The government's official estimate for the work is just under £5 billion. But the estimate only included the basic set up costs to the IPS. It excluded the cost to other government departments of connecting to and using the ID system.
A spokesman for the IPS told the INQUIRER that the part of the contract that allowed the suppliers to do whatever work for whatever government departments, "has not been confirmed yet". He refused to reveal details of the IPS' agreement to spend an unlimited amount of tax payers money. He said it was "confidential" .
Identity boffins at the London School of Economics, who have been attacked by the government for suggesting it might have underestimated the true cost of the ID scheme to the tax payer, said today the ID Scheme was jinxed because the technology was too complex and there was too much political interference in the project.
"Key details about the implementation, oversight and buy–in to the Scheme remain vague," said an LSE statement, and implied that this went against the principles of sensible systems design.
Bill Crothers, executive director of the government's Identity and Passport Service, said in a statement that the shoe-in was a "major milestone" in the ID programme.
"All fives suppliers have agreed to provide a co-operative working environment,"he said. Presumably, that is because they are being paid billions of pounds to do the work.
Computing said Crothers told it competition between the five suppliers was " fierce".
They will undergo mini-competitions, outside of EU procurement rules, to decide who gets to develop which chunks of the ID programme.
Nick Wilson, a European honcho at US IT multinational CSC, said in an IPS statement that he was "delighted" to win the business.
Sean Finnan, UK managing director of US IT multinational EDS said in the same statement that its track record supplying identity systems to the US military meant it was ideally suited to finger British citizens using the same technolog y.
A statement by Japanese IT multinational Fujitsu said: "We are looking forward tow orking (sic) with IPS and other government departments and agencies ". US IT multinational IBM merely confirmed its appointment.
Alex Dorrian, UK chief of Thales, a French arms manufacturer: “Thales brings a unique capability to this programme". You can say that again. µ
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Thales and BAE systems, hmmm what kind of people would you want to have control over you, the Goevernment and arms companies??
I say give to to IBM, they have a proven track record in this area in the past, Germany I think it was.
As always we have foreign nationals asking what the problem is. The problem is that this is not just an identity card. The card is to be coupled to a back-end database which could contain:

- Biometric data including fingerprints and iris scans
- Complete record of where you now live, and any second homes including overseas
- Every other document the government has issued about you including passports, driving licenses, national insurance, health cards
- Details of who countersigned your application form
- Audit trail of everyone who has ever accessed your record and for what purpose
- A complete history of every one of the above pieces of information.

These are listed in Schedule 1 of the Identity Cards Act 2006 at http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2006/ukpga_20060015_en_5#sch1.

The plan is to make the system 'pay for itself' by allowing open access to the system by any third-party who thinks it will be useful. The document numbers of other documents act as keys into other systems which could allow the government to cross-reference between systems.

You won't be able to just present the card for many services, you will need to perform biometric captures (e.g. fingerprint reading) to authenticate against the database itself (which will be recorded in the database).

The Act sets out fines of up to £1,000 for not keeping your record up to date.

Many of the features can be used to assist in 'joined-up' government, but they can also be misused by government and agencies to trawl the data. The audit trail makes sense from a 'who disclosed this information then' point of view, but it's a massive invasion of privacy which tracks everywhere you've used the card. I for one would prefer not to let the government - or any other organization - have this level of information about my life.

We have survived very well without identity cards for fifty years and under more dangerous circumstances than this. I see no need to invade everyone's privacy for very minor benefits, if any at all.

On top of that it's a very expensive scheme with a high probability of being implemented incorrectly, of being subject to information disclosures, of being subject to false positives and negatives (not identifying you when you need it to), and of being unavailable when needed.
When it´s time to get the mark on the right hand or forehead, do I get to pick where to put it, or will that be decided for me, too?

Btw, for those who care, I´m a US citizen, and intend to vote for whichever Democrat wins the nomination. Hopefully, things will be unfscked enough in 2013 that we can quit allowing ourselves to be enslaved by the government and get back to doing what we´re supposed to be doing. That being going back to being the greatest country in the world. (I doubt we can pull it off, but I´m hopeful)
Is it just me, or does this actually look like a marvelously well-crafted Get Out Of Jail Free card for all Strategic Suppliers ?
With a setup like this, the Big Five will rake in billions, put low-paid code monkeys in place who will pound keys willy-nilly and, when nothing works as advertised, they'll play blame tennis for ten years or more while pocketing yet more money to "fix" things.
In the end, it'll all be for nothing anyway, since Uncle Sam will be running the NHS and ID databases from Las Vegas, and they'll VOIP you to tell you what time you have to get up tomorrow morning and don't forget to take out the trash this time.
Ah, isn't the future a wonderful place ?
IBM still up to their old tricks eh..

Incidentally, I hear that in belgium microsoft makes the ID cards, so which of those acronyms you list is MS hiding behind?
In my experience, at least 2 of the bidders (US) are parasites to the point of seriously crippling the business efficiency of their customers.
And why should it be different in this case?
lol some are ur comments makes me think your 2 year olders

here in Malta we have had id cards since before i was born and i have never heard/seen or read about identity theft. 

grow up.....
Yes, but who would want an Estonian identity anyway.... [evil grin]
quote "ID Cards
I cant understand people who think ID card = Id theft. If its done properly its no less secure than any other system you have right now. Take Estonia, we've had ID cards for years now and sorry to burst your bubble, ID thefts are non existant."

Perhaps your govt. don't regually give away your details. i'd link to an Inquirer article but can't be bothered to look.
I cant understand people who think ID card = Id theft. If its done properly its no less secure than any other system you have right now. Take Estonia, we've had ID cards for years now and sorry to burst your bubble, ID thefts are non existant.
As much as I hate to be forced out of my own country: 

"Would the last person to leave Britain please turn the lights out?"
First, How smart is it to give Your Identification to Machine from Forgien Govenment? Trading You perhaps for Lost SoulMate instantly.

Second. In US Senate new Bill requires Real Estate Brokers & other home Invasion Murders to submit to Finger Print ID as Part of protocol. Lift Those Prints & Serve.Bub.
Drashek
a few weeks after these cards are launched, can the person that buys my identity on e-bay please tell me who i am