– fordi tiden kræver et MODSPIL

12. Jul 2006

ID-kort - civil ulydighed på vej?

 
NO2ID
Den britiske journalist Henry Porter beskriver regeringens planlagte nye ID-kort i dagens Guardian, hvor han beskriver en ordning, der interessant nok kan minde om det danske CPR- og folkeregister: Man skal stå registreret med sin adresse (i dag er der intet centralt forlkeregister i England), meddele adresseændringer, osv., og ligesom det danske CPR-nummer vil ID-kortet trække et dataspor, der på få minutter vil kunne fortælle de vigtigste "formelle" begivenheder i din personlige historie.

Dette dog kombineret med et ID-kort forsynet med billede og biometriske data (og RFID-chip), som man har pligt til at bære på sig og fremvise på forlangende.

Således Porter:
You will be required to attend an enrolment centre with some form of identifying material - bank statements, credit cards, driving licence or birth certificate, who knows what. Then you will be fingerprinted, photographed and the iris in your eye will be measured. You will give the authorities 49 pieces of information about yourself. If you don't, you may be fined up to £2,500. Additional fines of up to £2,500 may be levied every time you fail to comply.
(...)
Your file on the NIR will build an entire picture of your life - your hospital visits, your children's schools, your driving record, your criminal record, your finances, insurance policies, your credit-card applications, your mortgage, your phone accounts (and, one presumes your phone records), and your internet service providers.

Every time you get a library card, make a hire-purchase agreement, apply for a fishing or gun licence, buy a piece of property, withdraw a fairly small amount of your money from your bank, take a prescription to your chemist, apply for a resident's parking permit, buy a plane ticket, or pay for your car to be unclamped you will be required to swipe your card and the database will silently record the transaction. There will be almost no part of your life that the state will not be able to inspect.
Systemet vil altså, som man ser, stille en hel del flere oplysninger til umiddelbar rådighed for myndighederne, og minder vel hermed om det "borgerkort", man for år tilbage opgav at indføre het i landet - bl.a. fordi ordningen blev kritiseret for at muliggøre den totale overvågning af borgerne.

Porter finder ikke de mulige konsekvenser mindre skræmmende:
Something enormous and revolutionary is about to happen to us. We are giving the most precious part of ourselves to the government, allowing it complete freedom to roam through our privacy. And it's not just to this government, but to the governments of the future, the nature of which we cannot possibly know. And it's not just our privacy - it is the rights and privacy of future generations. While we are comfortable about handing this information over to the state, the citizens of the future may feel strongly about our complacency and our faith in the British government. We have a duty to those people, just as all the people who fought for the rights we enjoy today felt a sense of obligation to us.
Men myndighederne, herunder Blair, for hvem dette projekt er blevet noget af en personlig kæphest, vil os jo kun det bedste?

Vel,
The prime minister asks us to trust him and implies that abuse of a database would be unthinkable in Britain. But after the lies before the invasion of Iraq, the revelations of the Hutton inquiry and the evidence about rendition flights using British airspace I would suggest that we treat these sorts of assurances and appeals with the utmost suspicion.

Remember this government's attack on liberty. Remember what we have already lost - the campaign that has diminished defendants rights, introduced punishment without a court deciding that the law has been broken, restricted protest and speech and even assembly. Blair is unabashed about his record and has taken to describing civil liberties as a privilege that may be removed from someone the moment they become a suspect or a defendant.
Endnu mere interessant afslutter Porter sin gennemgang ved i lighed med folkene bag hjemmesiden NO2ID at erklære, at han hverken vil eller kan indordne sig under den drakoniske og totalitære overvågning, ordningen vil medføre:
In a free country I believe that every human being has the right to define him or herself independently and without reference to the government of the time. This, I believe, is particularly important in a multicultural society such as ours. The ID card and NIR require and will bring about a kind of psychological conformity, which is utterly at odds with a culture that has thrived on individualism, defiance and the freedom to go your own way.

And it will remove the right of those who for whatever reason wish to withdraw from the cares of the world and the influence of society, to resort to the consolations of solitude and privacy without inspection from a centralised authority. Privacy, anonymity and solitude are rights, and we are about to lose them for ever.
(...)
Imagine handing over the keys to your home when you are out at work to allow some faceless bureaucrat to rifle through your desk and drawers, your photograph albums and children's school reports, your bills and love letters. That is the kind of access they are going to have, and it is going to grow as time goes by and we become accustomed to this unseen presence in our lives.

Well, it's not for me. I cannot do it. I will not do it, and I hope you won't either.
Vil folk slutte sig til Porters modstand? Vil vi se tusindvis af briter brænde deres ID-kort, som farvede sydafrikanere gjorde med deres pas i Gandhis tid? Jeg tvivler, men jeg håber det.

For sandheden er, at det mest fladpandede og tilbagevendende argument for overvågning - at det skader jo ikke, hvis man ikke har noget at skjule - også er det mest afslørende totalitære.

For ærligt talt: Hvad blev der af den simple idé om privatlivets fred, der siger, at hvis man ikke antages at begå noget ulovligt, har man lov til at være i fred og ikke pligt til at oplyse noget? Som borgere i dette samfund må vi huske på, at staten aldrig har mere magt, end vi selv giver den.

Link til Porters artikel i The Guardian.
Link til hjemmesiden NO2ID, der ikke handler om at sige ja til ID-kortet.

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