How to disrupt the ID Card system

The only only only only way that you will be able to not have your biometric data, and probably your DNA eventually, kept on the National Identity Register is by refusing to get a card.

Forget trying to fool the system by wrecking your biometric measurements, taking the 'wrong' documents, lying in the application interview/form/whatever, or anything else. All this will do is provide the system with a reason to focus on you, and try to get the *right* information.

Just Say No.

No. I won't get an ID Card.
No. I won't apply for an ID Card.
No. I won't attend an appointment for an ID Card.
No. I won't allow my biometric data to be recorded on a database.
No. I won't pay for an ID Card.
No. I won't carry an ID Card if I'm given one.
No. I won't show my ID Card to anyone if they ask.

NO.

On the flip side: Yes. I will be renewing my passport this year.
I'll have 10 years + 9 months before the system wants me again... Although, I am wondering about what to do when my photo driving license expires?

Wafty


(PS You can renew your passport whenever you want - it doesn't have to be near the expiry date. The only caveat is that irrelevant of how long you have left on the old passport, you can only transfer a maximum of 9 months to the new one.)

Disrupting your Biometric Data

The ID Card system will record 3 types of biometric information:

• fingerprints


• iris scan


• head and shoulder photograph

So I would suggest trying to disrupt all three.

1. Disrupt your fingerprints
   
   • Use sandpaper - sand your fingerprints off
   
   
   • Soak your hands in water for as long as you can until the skin turns prune-like - try to keep your hands wet throughout the entire ID Card application process (Keep them in plastic bags full of soaking wet towelettes, etc.)
   
   
   • Superglue your fingers together - "Sorry I was making a model plane and the glue spilt and went everywhere."
   
   
   
2. Disrupt Iris / Retina scanners


• Use drugs to expand your pupils - this will make it harder to scan your retina as there will be less of it visible. I won't tell you what to use as a lot of this stuff can be seriously dangerous.


• Wear contact lenses - preferably slightly altered lenses with scratches and colouring on them. Mind you don't put anything in your eye that will damage it permanently.


• Make your eyes water uncontrollably - again you could do yourself some permanent damage, so be careful. Pepper spray and Mace would both probably work really well, but I have no intention of spraying myself in the eyes with them. Cut raw onions will do the trick. Try not to lose the contacts though.



3. Change shape of face / head.
   At the moment the Passport Service will accept photos you send to them, and they never even see you, so you could just try handing over some shocking quality photo - like that from a camera phone on lowest setting...
   Apparently your ears are apparently the least likely to change as they're made of cartilage, so fat doesn't affect them, and age does little to the shape. Bear this in mind.


• Use stage makeup - you will not look normal


• Men grow a full beard, then shave it all off after the photos are done. Hairy women do likewise.


• Grow your hair to cover your ears.


• Pad your cheeks with wadding - you should be able to get it from any stage makeup or costume shop or just use cotton wool


• Gurn in the pictures

The idea is for your whole appearance to change almost the instant you leave the ID Processing centre - you could even try doing a Superman and getting changed in a phone box outside...

As an added bonus: it has been suggested by some that the system might not be able to cope with names more than 300 characters long, even if it can someone still has to input the data...
So change your middle name to the entire works of Shakespeare or the Encyclopedia Britannica or if you're feeling keen Wikipedia or Linux 2.6 kernel source code, make sure you throw in a few spelling mistakes so they can't just copy and paste.
It has also been suggested that you could try to hack the system using programming code as part of your name, but I don't know what kind of stuff you could use as I'm not a programmer. I don't imagine del *.* would work...

Wafty

ID Cards

So it turns out that ID Cards will now be compulsory from 2010. Thanks for the opt-out that lets people pay for the card, register their details on the National Identity Registry, but not have to take the card until 2010. That's very kind of you to let us pay to put all our personally identifying information on your database.

ID Cards have problems - biometric data just does not work for everybody. In fact, despite using 3 identifying unrelated biometric measurements, some people can't be registered at all. What good is that?

And if even the government doesn't think the ID Cards will do what they are supposed to do, why should the public?

I still don't see a valid purpose for the ID cards. Despite all the rubbish that the public wants them to stop this, that and the other, I don't see how they will.
The government has the following reasons for introducing ID cards:
Terrorism, sex offenders, illegal immigrants, organised criminals, benefits cheats, failed asylum seekers...
I don't see how any of them will be stopped by ID Cards unless people are:

1. forced to carry them at all times


2. forced to produce them at any and every point of interaction with anything remotely official (like a bank, post office, credit card, landlord, employer, etc)

I for one have no intention of doing either, and not because I feel I have done anything wrong.

Taken from a comment
on Slashdot

"If you haven't done anything wrong, what do you have to hide?"

Ever heard that one? I work in information security, so I have heard it more than my fair share. I've always hated that reasoning, because I am a little bit paranoid by nature, something which serves me very well in my profession. So my standard response to people who have asked that question near me has been "because I'm paranoid." But that doesn't usually help, since most people who would ask that question see paranoia as a bad thing to begin with. So for a long time I've been trying to come up with a valid, reasoned, and intelligent answer which shoots the holes in the flawed logic that need to be there.

And someone unknowingly provided me with just that answer today. In a conversation about hunting, somebody posted this about prey animals and hunters:
"Yeah! Hunters don't kill the *innocent* animals - they look for the shifty-eyed ones that are probably the criminal element of their species!"
but in a brilliant (and very funny) retort, someone else said:
"If they're not guilty, why are they running?"

Suddenly it made sense, that nagging thing in the back of my head. The logical reason why a reasonable dose of paranoia is healthy. Because it's one thing to be afraid of the TRUTH. People who commit murder or otherwise deprive others of their Natural Rights are afraid of the TRUTH, because it is the light of TRUTH that will help bring them to justice.

But it's another thing entirely to be afraid of hunters. And all too often, the hunters are the ones proclaiming to be looking for TRUTH. But they are more concerned with removing any obstactles to finding the TRUTH, even when that means bulldozing over people's rights (the right to privacy, the right to anonymity) in their quest for it. And sadly, these people often cannot tell the difference between the appearance of TRUTH and TRUTH itself. And these, the ones who are so convinced they have found the TRUTH that they stop looking for it, are some of the worst oppressors of Natural Rights the world has ever known.

They are the hunters, and it is right and good for the prey to be afraid of the hunters, and to run away from them. Do not be fooled when a hunter says "why are you running from me if you have nothing to hide?" Because having something to hide is not the only reason to be hiding something.

Next week: Big Sticks to Beat People With

Wafty