New UK government will scrap ID cards, curb CCTV and help open source
By Wilson • May 21st, 2010 • Category: Industry News, Lead Story
- Photo: Stock.Xchng
Today’s Britain is constantly under surveillance by CCTV cameras, preparing for a new national ID card, copyrights most UK government data, and now, disturbingly, can censor the Internet.
A change for the better
Thankfully, it looks like this is about to change. The new Liberal Democrat/Tory government may well garner lots of fans, among both techies and those who value their privacy. Today the coalition released its unified policy statement (on PDF), and if you’re reading this blog, chances are you’ll be impressed. The new UK government has announced:
- We will scrap the ID card scheme, the National Identity register and the ContactPoint database, and halt the next generation of biometric passports.
- We will outlaw the fingerprinting of children at school without parental permission.
- We will adopt the protections of the Scottish model for the DNA database.
- We will review libel laws to protect freedom of speech.
- We will further regulate CCTV.
- We will end the storage of internet and e-mail records without good reason.
- We will create a level playing field for open-source software and will enable large ICT projects to be split into smaller components.
- We will create a new “right to data” so that government-held datasets can be requested and used by the public, and then published on a regular basis.
- We will introduce measures to ensure the rapid roll-out of superfast broadband across the country. We will ensure that BT and other infrastructure providers allow the use of their assets to deliver such broadband, and we will seek to introduce superfast broadband in remote areas at the same time as in more populated areas. If necessary, we will consider using the part of the TV license fee that is supporting the digital switchover to fund broadband in areas that the market alone will not reach.
Most of these new UK government policies sound like they make a lot of sense, though we’ll have to wait and see if the government can put its money where its mouth is. Still, it’s optimistic to see that conservatives and liberals can find some common ground.
Tags for this article: cctv, CCTV cameras, id cards, UK government, unified policy
I would love to see this New legislation on CCTV guidlines. I happen to think they are pretty good already. It is only the people who install CCTV badly that caused privacy issues. what exactly have people got to hide? it is a small price to pay for social safety to have a watchful eye deterring crime on the streets. what is the harm in that?