The UK is becoming a database state resulting in intrusive surveillance by the Government through identity cards, according to London’s NO2ID, a campaigning organisation. NO2ID is gauging public support against the government’s national identity card scheme, a requirement established by the Identity Cards Act 2006.

“In this country, the government is going too far, trying to collect too much personal information, too fast,” said NO2ID member Nick Hay.

“We all have messy lives at some level and it’s not right to have it laid out in the open for everyone to see and judge.” According to Mr Hay, the ID card will serve as a universal personal identifier, which will be a single number that will link all information about that person.

The Identity Cards Act specifies fifty categories of information that the National Identity Register (NIR) can hold on each citizen, including fingerprints, digitised facial and iris scans, current and past UK and overseas places of residence, and work permit details. NO2ID Hammersmith and Fulham team leader Brian Mooney explained that the scheme does not just intrude citizens’ lives in the way that the Government does already, but it also enables authorities to search across and link databases holding sensitive information.

“There’s even talk about car tracking. That is totally out of line of what we’re used to in this country. Everything you want to be able to clone an identity will be in place through this new system,” Mr Mooney said.

According to NO2ID, the multi-billion pound scheme is the Government’s attempt to use computers to manage society by watching people, and will lead to officials poking into people’s private life more than ever before.

A serious concern is the unprecedented access that the private sector, like insurance companies, could get to all this personal information, also hindering job prospects and financial borrowings in the long run.

The Home Office declined to give any comment.

Their website, however, states that ‘Government agencies and private businesses will be able to check the information held on the national identity register, in order to help them establish the identity of their customers and staff.

For example, you may be asked to prove your identity when opening a bank account or registering with a doctor.’ Every registered individual will also be obligated to notify the Government of any change in their details.

A failure to do so could lead to a fine being imposed. NO2ID has eight groups of activists around London and several others around the country, who hold meetings every month to organise stalls in public arenas to promote their cause.

Their next stalls in London are to be held on 21 and 25 of June outside The Roundhouse on Chalk Farm Road in Camden at 6.30pm.