No. 10 Downing Street live webchat with James Hall, Chief Executive of the Identity and Passport Service
James Hall, Chief Executive of the Identity and Passport Service, the former Accenture managing partner now in charge of implementing the controversial National Identity Register and ID card plans
This could be interesting, or it could be censored:
UPDATE:
For comments and a full transcript, see this NO2ID Campaign discussion forum thread:
"No 10 webchat - James Hall, Identity and Passport Service"
No. 10 Dowing Street Live Webchat - Tuesday 14 November 1600 GMT withJames Hall, Chief Executive of the Identity and Passport Service
Tony Blair has said that the identity card scheme is essential if we are to tackle the problems of the modern world.
Now you have the chance to quiz the boss of the ID card scheme, James Hall, in the latest of our popular series of webchats.
N.B. Accenture have just pulled out of the disastrous £2 billion National Health Service IT contract which James Hall was in charge of.
Will he repeat the same mistakes as before, or will he have learned from them ?
Will he be forced to resign, to protect the careers of Home Office Ministers and civil servants,when, not if. the centralised National Identity Register database suffers from Security and Privacy breaches ?
Do you welcome the introduction of ID cards and the National Identity scheme? Are you worried about how secure your personal data will be? Do you think the cards will be good value for money, or are you concerned about the likely cost of the scheme?Pose your question to James Hall now. The webchat will take place at 1600 GMT on Tuesday 14 November.
James Hall spent his career with consultancy firm Accenture. In September 2006 he was appointed as the first Chief Executive of the Identity and Passport Service (IPS). He has overall responsibility for the organisation, operation and management of the IPS, including the successful introduction of identity cards and the National Identity Scheme.
Comments
Some questions worth asking:
Exactly how is the ID card going to prevent terrorism or illegal immigration?
How much is it going to cost me, both to buy the card and to pay for the administration of the system through general taxation?
If I already have a passport or a drivers licence, why do I need to pay for an extra form of ID?
When will the scheme be made compulsary?
What information will the card hold, or permit access to. How can I be sure that this information is correct?
How often will I be required to renew the card?
If I do not agree with the scheme and do not apply for a card does this automatically make me a criminal?
What measures are you taking to ensure that the national central ID database will not be hacked and massive identity fraud committed?
Under what conditions will I be required to show the card, or provide a finger/face print?
Will the conditions under which the card is used be "ring fenced", or will there be a progressive scope creep with my details being given out to all and sundry?
What organisations will be allowed access to my ID data? How can I be sure that criminal organisations will not apply and be given access to my data, as has previously happened with DVLA records?
Are there any circumstances under which I could be denied an ID card, or where the state could deliberately or accidentally invalidate my card - effectively making me a non-person?
Posted by: Bob Mottram | November 6, 2006 6:59 PM
Another question worth asking: A person's entry on the NIR will be indexed by a unique number - their own personal identity number. Do you anticipate that this number will be added to other public sector databases such as criminal records, DNA database, NHS records, DVLA drivers, DVLA vehicles, TV Licensing etc.. not to mention private sector databases - banks etc.
If he says 'no' or 'don't know' then he's lying. If he says 'yes', then that's an admission that the NIR will indeed act as a central indexing system to all other state databases, effectively creating a logical single database containing everything about us.
Posted by: Alan Tench | November 7, 2006 10:00 PM
I ran an experiment to try to see what sort of questions were accepted by James Hall and what sort of questions were avoided. This involved submitting 17 security-related questions in advance of the webchat. Two of the more innocuous of these questions were taken - the rest were ignored. An introduction to this experiment can be found at http://www.itsecurity.com/features/feature-live-webchat-on-national-id-cards-120806/ and all of the questions taken by James Hall together with his answers, and the questions we submitted but that were ignored, are available for open and anonymous discussion at http://www.itsecurity.com/expert/category/id-discussion/.
Posted by: Kevin Townsend | December 11, 2006 10:08 PM