On 28 June the UK government narrowly won a vote on its identity card proposals in the House of Commons, seeing its majority halved to just 31. The previous day the UK Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, expressed strong concerns over the government's plans for a biometric national identity card and database. He particularly criticised the scheme's "disproportionate and excessive" storage of personal information and the wide range of uses that would "permit function creep into unforeseen and perhaps unacceptable areas of private life".

On 27 June the London School of Economics published "The Identity Project: an assessment of the UK Identity Cards Bill and its implications". The report looks at the potential costs and benefits of the government's proposals, and finds that the scheme may be both more expensive and less

Experts from the London School of Economics have calculated the true cost of the planned ID card in the UK and conclude it will be be three times as high as the government estimates. Introducing the card will cost over 18 billion pounds (26,6 billion euro), or 435 euro per inhabitant of the UK in stead of the estimated 93 pounds (almost 138 euro).

The LSE report mentions 3 issues seriously under-calculated by the Treasury; the cost of each reader, the lifetime of a card and the processing of individual changes. In stead of 250-750 pound per reader, 3.000-4.000 pound is more likely. The researchers find the assumed 10-year life span of a card equally dubious. In order to remain reliable, biometric data such as fingerprints and facial images need to be re-scanned every five years. Finally, the researchers point at hidden costs of 1 to 4 billion pounds for human resources to process a high number of changes in the register.

In a press conference held on 26 May 2005 in Paris, 6 organisations have launched a campaign against the French project of mandatory biometric ID card. The French Human Rights League (LDH), the union of magistrates, the union of French barristers, EDRI-member IRIS, DELIS (a coalition of more than 60 French NGOs and trade unions for the defence of privacy and personal data protection) and the French Association of Democrat Lawyers have published a joint position statement and have started a petition demanding the withdrawal of the project of the French Ministry of the Interior to introduce a mandatory biometric ID card (see EDRI-gram Number 3.8).

The ministry aims to provide the whole population by 2007 with an ID card with a contactless chip containing not only the civil status of the citizen but also two biometric identifiers: photograph and fingerprints. These data would be filed in centralised databases. The card will be mandatory and would also include the address of the holder. According to historians of the French identity system, the combination of these last two features was last used in the dark times of the Vichy regime. After the liberation the civil status information of French citizens was never centrally stored until 1987, but even since then, the change of address should not be mandatorily reported to the administration, in addition to the fact that the ID card itself is not mandatory.

"Do what you must do and let come what may. Due to circumstances like the Putin presidency you can hope and you can make plans, more or less realistic, and work to get closer to your aim and to help people," that's the more or less stoic attitude that characterises Sergei Smirnov from the Russian Human Rights Network.

Smirnov (1973), with a degree in geophysics, lives in Moscow. He has been the co-ordinator of the Human Rights Network group since its foundation in 1997. He started his NGO career in 1992 as interpreter at the Moscow Research Centre for Human Rights. In 1993 he initiated the 'Information Human Rights Network' program to build a sustainable computerised network of human rights groups all over Russia. He distributed computer equipment and maintained Internet connections to over 40 Russian human rights groups from different regions of the country and conducted a number of technical workshops. More over, he edited the "Human Rights in Russia" bulletin from 1994 to 1997. In 1996, together with colleagues from Ryazan, he started the Human Rights Online website which by now is the largest source of information on human rights in Russia. Since 1998 he works on cyber-rights issues, including online privacy.

On 20 April 2005 the civil liberties group Statewatch, together with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and two other NGOs launched the Campaign Against Mass Surveillance (ICAMS), calling on all national governments and intergovernmental organisations to turn away from antiterrorism efforts that are oriented around mass surveillance.

The campaign started with an in-depth report on 'The emergence of a global infrastructure for registration and surveillance'. "Driven largely by the United States, a growing web of anti-terrorism and security measures are being adopted by nations around the world. This new 'security' paradigm is being used to roll back freedom and increase police powers in order to exercise increasing control over individuals and populations." The report describes 10 signposts that clearly mark the general erosion of human rights. To some extent, all of the signposts have already been realised. To another extent, the report reads like a manual for an awesome uncle of Big Brother.

The French minister of the Interior Dominique de Villepin has announced plans to force every Frenchman to buy a new electronic ID card with a chip containing photograph and fingerprints. On 11 April the French government outlined its plan to introduce biometrics on passports by 2006 and on ID cards by 2007.

In an interview with the newspaper France-Soir a day later, De Villepin said ID cards should be made compulsory again in France, after the obligation was deleted in 1955.

IDG News reports that the current French obligation to show ID at request is relatively mild. Citizens may present a driving license or a passport, even an expired one, or call witnesses. A passport currently costs about 60 euro in France, while identity cards are free. "The price of the passport will be increased a little. And there'll be a fee for the

The United States will not allow for any further delay in the introduction of biometric identifiers in passports of EU citizens travelling to the US. EU Justice Commissioner Frattini sent an urgent letter to the US Congress asking for a delay of 10 months in introducing biometrics in the passports of all EU citizens. In his letter, Frattini states only six EU countries - Belgium, Germany, Austria, Finland, Sweden and Luxembourg - are able to meet the original deadline of 26 October this year. But on 31 March 2005 the chairman of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, James Sensenbrenner, replied that an extension was unlikely.

On 3 December 2004 the Council of ministers of Justice and Home Affairs (JHA Council) adopted a new regulation on biometrics, forcing member states to include two biometric identifiers in passports and travel

The UK Government's plans for a national identity card have come under renewed criticism in a report published last week by the London School of Economics.

The report, "The Identity Project: An assessment of the UK Identity Cards Bill & its implications", featured contributions from experts across the LSE and from businesses that would be involved in building any ID system. The report concludes that the government's proposals are "too complex, technically unsafe, overly prescriptive and lack a foundation of public trust and confidence." It also finds that the risks involved in the government's proposals are such that "the scheme should be regarded as a potential danger to the public interest and to the legal rights of individuals".

The use of iris scans and fingerprints in the scheme is identified as a