SHOP STAFF WILL TAKE CHARGE OF ID CARDS

STAFF in supermarkets, post offices and even photo shops will be asked to take fingerprints and facial scans for the new ID card, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said yesterday.


Card opponent Phil Booth, of No2ID, said: “It’s almost comical that the organ­isation in charge of national security thinks they can trust the local camera shop with your most private information.” continues here continues here

UK airport tests facial-recognition technology

Manchester Airport is testing facial-recognition technology as part of the UK £1.2bn e-Borders scheme to tighten controls. The facial-recognition system, provided by Fujitsu Services in partnership with Vision-Box, works by scanning passengers' faces and uses automatic gates in an attempt to both tighten border security and speed up immigration processing times.

New facial recognition gates will use scanning equipment to compare the faces of UK and EU passengers to their biometric passports. The system enables passengers holding electronic passports and arriving through Terminal 1 at Manchester airport to fast-track through immigration with no prior registration.

If successful these gates could be rolled-out across the country.

The Government's electronic border system - e-Borders - will mean every passenger will be counted in and out of Britain and checked against immigration and security watch-lists by 2014. Around 99 percent of foreign nationals from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) will be tracked in and out of Britain by 2010, the Home Office announced last week.

The e-Borders system has already screened 50 million passengers travelling to Britain, leading to more than 2,000 arrests, including murderers, drug dealers and sex offenders, the government has claimed.

Home secretary Jacqui Smith said: "Our high-tech electronic borders system will allow us to count all foreign nationals in and out of the UK, while checking them against watch-lists."

"These checks make up just one part of Britain's triple ring of security, alongside fingerprint visas for three-quarters of the world's population, and the roll-out of ID cards for foreign nationals locking people to one identity." continues 

Identity cards 'useless in fight against terrorism'

Mass fingerprinting, biometric passports, identity cards and international identity databases will not protect Britain and other European countries from terrorists or criminals.

This startling admission comes in a leaked European Commission report prepared for Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and other EU Home Affairs Ministers.

The report undermines Gordon Brown's claims about the need for controversial new passports and identity cards to protect the country from terror attacks.

It raises new questions about the true purpose of Government databases, which will store intimate details of everyone in Britain, including their picture, fingerprints and confidential personal information.

The EU report, obtained by The Mail on Sunday, says most people behind terror attacks in the UK and Europe were living in the EU legally and so would not be affected by increased security measures.......Article conts (-)