Support Digital Rights

[drplokta]

There's a new pledge on PledgeBank for people to sign up to pay £5 per month to set up a UK digital rights organisation. If they get 1,000 pledges, then it will happen. 31 so far, including me, but it was only created yesterday.

Go here if you want to sign up. And spread the word.

Comments

[andrewducker]

you aren't prepared to look at the ways it can, and will, go wrong or be abused.

I very much am.

But my response to "It can be abused in way X" is to find a way of doing it that doesn't allow that abuse, not to say "Well we shouldn't do it then."

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

find a way of doing it that doesn't allow that abuse

But there is no evidence that the government is actually interested in doing this. There are ways of setting up an ID card system that has a smaller chance of abuse, such as that porposed recently by the LSE. This has been wholly rejected by the government. There are also substantial technical issues about making the scheme workable at all, but they're ignoring this as well.

When the Information Commissioner says the introduction of ID cards is 'sleepwalking into a surveillance society', and is also ignored by the government, then we should be worried. I'm surprised you're not.

It seems to me that you're more than 'not worried' about ID cards, but are actually quite enthusiastic for what seem to me are all the wrong reasons. I thus don't think there's much point continuing this.

[andrewducker]

I've said that a centralised database would be easier to maintain and keep accurate than a whole bunch of little databases.

Other than that I haven't been in favour of them at all.

I'd agree that the government doesn't seem to be taking the right tack with them - but that (to me) is reason to push for them to be implemented correctly (and in a voluntarily capacity), not to push against them entirely.

But I think you're right - we can probably leave this here.