Adoption of Identity Cards
The universal adoption of identity cards is supported by law enforcement officials who claim that it will make surveillance and identification of criminals easier. However, concern is also expressed about the extensive cost and potential abuse of high-tech smartcards.
In the United Kingdom and the United States especially, government-issued compulsory identity cards or, more precisely, their centralised database are a source of debate as they are regarded as an infringement of privacy and civil liberties. Most criticism is directed towards the enhanced possibilities of extensive abuse of centralised and comprehensive databases storing sensitive data. A 2006 survey of UK Open University students concluded that the planned compulsory identity card under the Identity Cards Act 2006 coupled with a central government database generated the most negative attitudinal response among several alternative configurations.
Read more about this topic: Identity Document
Famous quotes containing the words adoption, identity and/or cards:
“Frankly, I adore your catchy slogan, “Adoption, not Abortion,” although no one has been able to figure out, even with expert counseling, how to use adoption as a method of birth control, or at what time of the month it is most effective.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)
“Motion or change, and identity or rest, are the first and second secrets of nature: Motion and Rest. The whole code of her laws may be written on the thumbnail, or the signet of a ring.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Men disappoint me so, I disappoint myself so, yet courage, patience, shuffle the cards ...”
—Margaret Fuller (1810–1850)