In the first month of the new ID obligations in the Netherlands, the Dutch police have issued 3.300 fines to people who could not immediately show a valid ID when asked. According to the Dutch Public Prosecution Service, the ID checks mainly take place in specific circumstances. "ID control mostly occurs in situations of disorder or possible violence, for example at night in entertainment districts. Also in situations with an elevated risk of disorder, such as soccer matches, the police may verify the identity."

In reality, the main result of the new ID obligations is a major increase in fines. People cycling on their bicycle without light for example, will get two fines. The Public Prosecution Service has indicated clearly it wants to make an example. "The main rule is there will be few escapes available for people who can't immediately present their ID. There is no right to an easy-going treatment, because it will in the end undermine the value of mandatory ID for law enforcement."

Think twice before buying a ticket to the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. You can only apply for tickets online, and in order to obtain a ticket you will have to answer a questionnaire demanding a lot of personal data. This profile will be linked to a mini spy chip (RFID) on the ticket. Rena Tangens from the German privacy-organisation FoeBuD is calling on all fans to boycott the World Championship because "the World Cup is being abused by sponsors and the surveillance industry to introduce snooping-technology and to spy on the fans."

Tickets will be sold from 1 February onwards. The questionnaire demands date of birth, passport number, telephone and fax number, e-mail, bank or credit-card data, as well as team and club preferences. Fans are not only to hand over their own data but also those of others in whose name they

On 1 January 2005, a new law went into force in the Netherlands obliging everybody above the age of 14 to always show ID when asked. Dutch police has immediately started to use the new power by fining dozens of citizens for not being able to present a valid passport, drivers license or ID card. Most citizens were given double fines, for example for riding on a bicycle without proper illlumination, or hanging out in groups and thus presenting a possible threat to the 'public order'. In the city of Rotterdam alone, 20 fines were issued within the first 24 hours of the new obligation. Two of the first fines that became public have raised serious concerns about the actual intentions of the police with their new power.

A young man attended the new-year's reception of the municipality of

On 30 November 2004 the Swiss mobile operator Swisscom has disconnected aproximately 130.000 unregistered users of prepaid mobile phones. On 23 June 2004 a new measure was adopted by the Swiss Bundesrat (Council of ministers) that required the operators (besides Swisscom also Orange and Sunrise) to start registering the personal details of all buyers, including ID-number, and store these personal data for 2 years. By the end of October 2004 the details of all customers that had bought prepaid phones since 1 November 2002 had to be registered.

The law was introduced as a measure against terrorism and international drug trafficking, after it became public that some al-Qaeda militants had used Swiss prepaid phones to communicate with each other. It is not evident that registration will prevent such use in the future, or prevent any other kind of criminals from contacting each other. People determined to hide from police investigations can always present false identity papers or use foreign Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards.

The European Union's Council of Ministers has decided, during its meeting yesterday, Monday, 13 December, to treat 400 million EU subjects like criminals.

By the beginning of 2008, every EU citizen and resident - with the exception of people living on the British isles and possibly in Denmark - will be fingerprinted when applying for a passport or other travel document. This procedure will be introduced in addition to digitalised facial photographs, which will be taken of every applicant already by the middle of 2006.

The data will be stored on emmbedded chips in the documents. These so-called RFID chips can be read out remotely, and there is so far no reliable way of securing the information contained on them. The project to establish a database holding holding the biometric data of all EU citizens to whom a document containing a biometrics chip has been issued was dropped.

The UK government is pushing ahead with plans for a compulsory national ID card. The Identity Cards Bill was announced in the Queen's Speech, which sets out the government's legislative programme for the coming year, and introduced in the House of Commons on 29 November.

The Bill is virtually unchanged from a draft published for consultation earlier this year. Citizens will be issued with a card as they renew passports, but can also be ordered to attend an interview to be biometrically scanned and given a card. A National Identity Register will contain details of the names, current and previous addresses, place of birth, identifying characteristics, nationality and immigration status of every UK resident. Biometrics (planned to be fingerprints and iris scans) will be stored on the card and in the database. Details of every access made to the Register will be stored, revealing the times and places that online checks were made on the card and hence the location of its owner.

It is likely that the Council of European Justice and Home Affairs ministers will adopt a regulation tomorrow, on 3 December 2004, to fingerprint all EU citizens and residents, to take digital photographs of their faces and to store these data in a gigantic database of 450 million EU citizens. This will be the last step of a procedure that has exploited the democratic deficit of the European Union to an unheard extreme.

Today the European Parliament adopted the proposal but introduced a large number of limitations. MEPs voted to clearly limit the kinds of information to be stored on the passports, they voted against the storage of the data in a central database and in favour of giving Data Protection Authorities oversight over the whole process. But it is unlikely that the Council will take any of these amendments into consideration. Under the European Union's consultation procedure the Council can globally reject all of the Parliament's amendments. Though it is mandatory to at least look at the parliamentary suggestions, it will be almost impossible to do so in this case, since the Council plans to adopt its own plan tomorrow.

A large group of UK-based rights organisations, including EDRI-member FIPR and Privacy International, has launched a formal e-petition against governmental plans to introduce ID-cards. The petition (open to UK residents only) closes at 19 November, timed to precede the speech of the Queen on 23 November 2004. Almost 1.000 individuals have endorsed the petition, that calls on the Prime Minister and the government to immediately cease all further development of, and legislation for, national identity cards and the National Identity Register.

The petition says: "We believe the proposals constitute an attack on individual rights and freedoms. We believe they will lead to institutional discrimination and to unfair and unlawful denial of benefits and services. We believe the proposals will lead to an increase in state control and