ID Cards - See No Evil?

Further proof, if anyone actually needed any further proof, that the ID Card Scheme is starting to resemble Napoleon's Retreat From Moscow has come with an admission that the ultimate gold-standard secure fingerprint/facial/iris biometric triumvirate has been cut down to just a twosome. Yes, Iris has left the band and will no doubt start a solo career busking at airports. This comes on top of the announcement sneaked out before Christmas, when everyone was half-soused, abandoning the clean database in favour of lumping the NIR onto three existing systems. I'm only a techie with a grudge, but I can see that multiplying the number of databases and reducing the number of biometrics used isn't going to do much for performance or reliability.

Now, I think it's time to review the previous Party Line on biometrics, courtesy of an old Register article by our old friend John Lettice:

Or rather, there aren't any more. Now, we have a low opinion of Tony McNulty's intelligence at Blairwatch, and one welcome bonus of dropping iris scans is that he won't have to count up to 13 any more when trying to justify the scheme, only up to 11. That's all ten fingers and your nose, Tony.

Moving back in time to October 2005 finds this from the Independent:

So ditching iris scans means we're essentially left with an ID card system using fingerprints as the primary means of identification, with the unreliable facial scans as a rather pointless backup. SpyBlog claims, no doubt with backup, that iris scans were actually the most reliable biometric. Sadly for the Home Office techno-freaks, it's the most expensive and Wee Gordon's now taken the moneybox away.

John Reid is fond of predicting that New Labour will carry on once the Dear Leader has Ascended to Heaven (or the US lecture circuit, as it's better known). Well, Reid the Heid is presiding over an ID card scheme that's late, over budget, intrusive, unwanted and was sold to a gullible audience by a bunch of smooth-talking suits from consulting companies. That's about as New Labour as it gets, so the old git is doing his best to keep the flame alive.

Links:
D-Notice
no2id
Register history search for iris scans - interesting for those 'did they really say that?' moments.
Bruce Schneier reporting a slight hiccup in Tony's beloved US VISIT programme that the Dear Leader, surprisingly enough, appears to have overlooked in his starry-eyed rush for e-borders.