[LINK] Leakage Problem Means Cards Will Never Be Secure

[Roger Clarke]

At 12:00 +1000 28/9/06, Howard Lowndes wrote:
>  ... changing the Privacy Act to make it unlawful for any person or 
>organisation to demand identification by presentation of a federal 
>document unless there is some very direct need for that 
>presentation, and that that demand is suitably documented and 
>authorised.

Do you detect just the odd loophole in there?  One of the 
fundamentals of dataveillance is that there are no natural boundaries 
to function creep, i.e. there's always a credible means of justifying 
the next extension.  Hence the solution is along the lines of the 
most effective prophylactic: 'drink water - not before, not after, 
but instead'.


>They may be, but they have to batter the government into submission, 
>and I don't see that happening yet.

Both the rhetoric and the limited amount of information that the 
Government provides to the public about its proposals have changed a 
great deal since the early stages. Remember that the starting-point 
was an *official* national id scheme, rather than the 'access card' / 
'not the national id scheme' that is currently being worked on.

For the history of the public campaigns and what they've achieved, see:
http://www.privacy.org.au/Campaigns/ID_cards/
in particular:
http://www.privacy.org.au/Campaigns/ID_cards/NatIDScheme.html
then:
http://www.privacy.org.au/Campaigns/ID_cards/HSCard.html
and now:
http://www.privacy.org.au/Campaigns/ID_cards/HSAC.html

-- 
Roger Clarke                  http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/

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Visiting Professor in Info Science & Eng  Australian National University
Visiting Professor in the eCommerce Program      University of Hong Kong
Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW