The government plans to introduce ID cards but is this a good idea? Will they create as many problems as they solve?
The reasons used for the introduction of ID cards by the government include:
- Prevent illegal immigration
- Prevent illegal working
- Aid anti-terrorism measures
- Tackle identity theft
- Reduce benefit fraud and abuse of public services
- Enhance sense of community
While the people against ID cards believe:
- Lead to loss of privacy
- Be costly and impractical
- Worsen harassment of ethnic minorities
- Have little impact on counter-terrorism
- Have little effect on illegal working
- Lead to ‘function creep’ in that the cards would be used to store more and more data on the card holder than a simple ID
Do we really need ID cards or are the current ID systems like passports, driving licenses , National insurance numbers, etc good enough? Is this just another way of governments keeping track of what we do?