Thegovernment outlined measuresit will
take to ensure the privacy of
ID-card holders at a Westminster eForum seminar on
Thursday.
Stephen Harrison, director of policy, identity and the passport
service, said biographical and
biometric data would be stored on two separate IT systems to
ensure maximum security.
He also said, "There needs to be further reassurance about
transparency, accountability and how safeguards will be put into
place," and added a strategic action plan was published in December
last year.
With oversight from Parliament and a newly appointed
identification commissioner, Harrison said the system will be
"strong, and can be strengthened further".
Access and technical controls will also be in place on the
databases, aiming to guard against internal misuse.
Harrison also spoke of tough penalties, with the maximum prison
sentence for misusing the data being 10 years.
He was speaking at the seminar Big Brother Britain?: ID cards,
Surveillance and Data Security, and attempted to reassure citizens
that ID cards would not be used as a surveillance tool.
He said, "The card can only hold limited information. It does
have some potential to be used for surveillance, but mobile phones
and credit cards leave more of an electronic trail behind us than
the cards ever will."
Benefits outweigh the surveillance aspects, he said, with
increased access to public services, greater convenience at borders
and lower levels of ID theft being the hoped-for advantages.
He added, "The National ID Scheme will make it much easier to
control our borders, and detect people applying for multiple IDs."
Only
police and security agencies will have access to the data, he
said.