An identity card by the back door

handcuffs EU driving licence “an identity card by the back door”

According to the Daily Telegraph, transport ministers are expected to approve a single EU driving licence at talks next week, with the document expected to be phased in between 2012 and 2032.

Scottish MEP Ian Hudghton fears it could be “an identity card by the back door” on an EU-wide level. The crucial issue is whether non-driving related information could be allowed to be included on licence chips. “There are very real civil liberties concerns about data protection and about precisely who would have access to exactly what information about individuals” said Hudghton who also called for safeguards to prevent the licence becoming, in effect, part of a Europe-wide identity card system.

At the same time a report in the European Voice

(Moves towards EU-wide DNA database) says that a Council of Ministers paper recommending “direct automated access” to DNA databases across Europe could lead to an EU-wide integrated data sharing agreement. A working group, comprising representatives of justice and interior ministries of member states, is to be set up to make a report on the practicalities of DNA sharing. The group will also look into similar arrangements concerning other personal details, such as fingerprints and car registration data.

The rules on DNA storage vary between member states. The UK has the largest DNA database in the world. Formed in 1995, it contains the DNA profiles of more than 2.5 million people.
While UK law allows police to take and keep DNA samples from all individuals arrested on suspicion of a recordable offence, police in France have no powers to take the DNA of suspects without their consent.

Gus Hosein from Privacy International said that since there were no provisions for deleting DNA records of people arrested in the UK who are proven not guilty in court, an exchange of DNA across the EU, could lead to “a database of people who have done nothing wrong”.

Technorati Tags: british-democracy, EU-law, EU-regulations, further-integration, id-cards

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Filed under : We used to live in a Democracy
By Ken
On March 22, 2006
At 12:43 pm
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