The government is to scrap itscontroversial £30 voluntary ID card systemin favour of having every child born in the UK implanted at
birth with a free
radio frequency-based (RFID) identity
marker.
The plan is part of a £100bn 10-year project to put the UK at
the forefront of post-internet information technology. It will lead
to new
grid-based
network technology, new information processing and storage
systems for
"pervasive
computing", and new massively parallel programming techniques,
the government said.
Children born to cabinet members from next year would be the
first to receive the implants. These will guarantee their access to
privileged government facilities and services.
Announcing the scheme a government spokeswoman said it would
return Britain to its rightful place as the world's IT technology
leader, as it was during the Second World War. It had swapped many
of the information theory and technology secrets developed by the
code breakers at
Bletchley Park for
butter and guns from America, and this had let the US gain the
lead, she said.
"The future is about pervasive, personal computing, and the
national identity scheme is the perfect platform on which to build
it," she said.
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