WHAT WE STAND FOR

NO2ID is a campaigning organisation. We are a single-issue group focussed on the threat to liberty and privacy posed by the rapid growth of the database state, of which "ID cards" are the most visible part. We are entirely independent. We do not endorse any party, nor campaign on any other topic.

We aim to publicise the case against state identity management among the general public, in the media, and at every level in government. NO2ID's members are from all sorts of backgrounds and hold all sorts of opinions on other questions. They almost certainly include people much like you. Please support us.

NO2ID comment:

GOVERNMENT RETREATS ARE MISREPORTED

Despite talk of cuts, u-turns and cancellations, Whitehall is actually speeding up the database state. If you hear this or that scheme has been dropped, then take a closer look. It almost certainly hasn't. There are cosmetic changes but the schemes just keep moving forward.

• ID Cards. Having found just a handful of 'volunteers' in Greater Manchester ID offices are to appear across the North West from January 2010. The ID Card Con is a proof-of-age card or substitute passport... which comes with life-long obligations to keep up a neatly numbered file on yourself.


• Medical Records. The database has *not* been abandoned. The Department of Health is bribing health authorities to do a massive mailshot to patients. Fail to respond to a single letter and your personal details will be permanently uploaded to the NHS spine. Opt out now.


• DNA and criminal records. Much 'consultation'. No change in practice. Almost everyone on the DNA database a year ago still is. The Criminal Records Bureau, too, treats mere arrest rather like conviction. The new Independent Safeguarding Authority can ban anyone from working in caring positions on the basis of hearsay, accusation, or its own peculiar evaluation of 'risk factors'. It will now *only* affect about 11 million people directly. That is 11 million more than necessary. And 11 million more than last year.


• Voter registration. Newly announced: to vote you will have to provide your signature and National Insurance Number for a central database. It cannot affect electoral fraud via postal votes (to blame for most fraud) or polling stations. What it can do is create another readily-searched and cross-referenced official list that you must be on.

Scheme after scheme reinforces the message of the database state: "You cannot be trusted; you may not trust others. You MUST trust the state".

If you want the choice of who to trust, join NO2ID.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT 'ID CARDS'

There's a lot of confusion about the government's proposed national identity scheme, and it doesn't help that the Home Office often gives misleading information.

Our summary of the scheme is here.

Answers to selected Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) are here.

The 'database state' is what we call the tendency to try to use computers to manage society by watching people. There are many interlocking government plans that do this. Together they mean officials poking into your private life more than ever before.

The list of database state initiatives on which NO2ID is campaigning, along with a wide range of other organisations is here.

FRONT PAGE ARCHIVES