A national identity card (1 Viewer)

[withoutaface]

Really? Man that happens a lot doesn't it...with asian names. I went to shcool with a girl named Anita Wang.

It's less the Wang and more the fact that he has two references to penis in his name.

 

[davin]

as i'm an american and all, i'm sort of aware of what we've got
(i've spent a couple months in australia, looking to spend more, prob a year, either for school or working in sydney when i can manage it.)

 

[Salima]

Then why did was my mom all like...they have one theyhave one! Man she's a twat! Now she amkes me feel like a tit. I shouldn't trust her sayings much. Since she seems to be wrong mroe and more these days. I I can't help but trust her cause she's my mommmy. Damn! I do feel twatish adn boobish...I'm sorry. Then what was she thinking of before? I'm going to ask her when she wakes up....I can't think what she could be thinking of! Well she is jamaican after all.

 

[davin]

s'ok. i'm just all disappointed i had to out myself to explain my credibility.

 

[Salima]

It's less the Wang and more the fact that he has two references to penis in his name.

I know, that's what's so amuzing. But every time teachers would call out anita, everyone owuld laugh, they never got over it1 Anita wang..didn't get it at furst..then as everyone kept cracking up I read in bewteen the lines and realsied what it was...I need a wang(wank!) I was like oh *giggle*....but then it just got old. I felt sorry for her after a while. I mean 2yrs of the same people that saw the sexualness of the name still laughing about it up until our graduation night!

 

[Salima]

s'ok. i'm just all disappointed i had to out myself to explain my credibility.

It's okay. You're not a "bad" american. I can say I like one of them. Don't know bout the rest though. I mean I do do the "stupid all of them!" Thing which I shouldn't. Because just as people do it with muslims, you know "Terrorists all of them" I shouldn't do the same back, cause then that's hypocritical. Do you have an accent! You would derrrr! Where are you from in america?

 

[davin]

i'm from southern california, just a short drive north from Los Angeles....bout 45 km or so, i'd reckon.
and yeah, american accent, whatever that'd be, but i type more like an aussie

 

[Salima]

i don't mind california. But you got arnie as your govenor. Was that wierd when it happned? oops, this is a bit off topic i just realised sorry everyone!

 

[davin]

was my first election...actually did vote for him based on platform.
basicly though...my views always been...... it says a lot about state politics at the time that arnold schwarteneggar was an improvement

 

[gerhard]

social security number is just like a tax file number

 

[Enlightened_One]

But how does it stop terrorism? Everybody coming into the country won't have one so that's not going to root terrorists out, only foreigners. And it's not like your average Joe Suicide Bomber is going to decide to go elsewhere and blow himself up because everybody's waving their ID cards in his face ...

But if a terrorist has been here long enough and immigrated etc, then wouldn't he have an identity card. I mean, from what I can gather it's not hard to immigrate to Australia and get citizenship.

 

[Generator]

*bump*

Growing support for smartcard

Growing support for smartcard
PM - Thursday, 30 March , 2006 18:30:00
Reporter: Paula Kruger


MARK COLVIN: There's growing support among senior government ministers for Australians to be issued an electronic card loaded with a range of health and welfare information.

It's nearly 20 years since the Hawke Government failed to push through its plans for an Australia card, after a Liberal Party-led campaign, and a public backlash over privacy concerns.

Back then, Alexander Downer was one of those who urged a national boycott of the card, but today he was there when John Howard's Cabinet discussed introducing the new card.

The Government's already trying to distance this proposal from the Australia Card.

The Health Minister Tony Abbott insists it's not a national ID card, but a way of improving access to benefits.

Paula Kruger reports.

[continued - see link]

 

[ogmzergrush]

Again, I'd highlight the lack of appreciable benefits as a very good reason as to why this is a very bad idea. Things like function creep also concern me, in that once the card is implemented it's nothing to decide that it should hold just a little more, and more, and more. Add to those the fact that the people who seem to think this is a brilliant idea seem to have a fairly limited understanding of the technology behind it, and it just sounds like a whole lot of trouble over nothing.

It also sounds very convenient having all the information about you you'll ever need stored on one card, but stopping and thinking about the consequences when something goes wrong (When, not if), suggests that it may be worth the extra trouble of carrying a few extra cards around for each function, rather than risking having all of it compromised in one blow.

Regarding the point that information is easily accessible anyway, I'd point out that it'll take a significant amount more time, and effort to attain criminal records, medical records, religious affiliation, employment history, credit background, and so on, from a range of individual institutions, than it would to read them all off a swiped card. Of course it's still possible if the person is dedicated, but why hand it all over to them in one go, on such a large scale?

In relation to securing the card itself, what's the plan team? PINs and passwords are fine for something relatively trivial such as a bank card, but what about a card with all your information on it? Would a four digit code really convince you that your information was safe? What are the alternatives? Biometrics would require huge amounts of infrastructure spending, and to be honest is often not really at a level where it's appropriate for securing information of this magnitude. I struggle to think of any form of security available for such cards which would put my mind at ease.

For anyone arguing that these cards would be secure, I'd advise reading about their implementation in other countries, where this has been demonstrated fairly clearly to not be the case, and in some cases where such cards have proven ridiculously easy to compromise.

If there were actually some tangible benefits for society as a whole through these cards, and reasonable attempts at assuring me of their security, fault tolerance and so on, then I may be a little more open minded about it, but I think for the forseeable future this is a bright idea we can do without.

Edit: On a sidenote, I'm going to be immensely annoyed if this comes to pass due to "terrorism concerns".

 

[Nietzsche]

This identity card idea is doubleplusungood.

I'm a genius.

 

[HotShot]

Yeah it'd take no time to break whatever encryption is on them and reverse engineer up a card reader.

Lol flawed.

no i think by using biometrics, u can pretty much amp up the security. like have a ur fingerprint imprinted into the card, and each time u use it, swipe ur thumb at the atm, or wherever.

this is bloody gud card. cos at the moment there way too many fucke cards, have it all one its gud. - problem lose it and lose everything then ur in a strife (no problem have backups-like a spare card).

so have ur library crd. credit card. uni id card evrything on it and it would be gud.
as for reverse engineering, they can do that now ? cant they, but with biometrics, u need the person's finger, or maybe an eye.

 

[ogmzergrush]

no i think by using biometrics, u can pretty much amp up the security. like have a ur fingerprint imprinted into the card, and each time u use it, swipe ur thumb at the atm, or wherever.

If you read my post, I've already addressed this. Biometrics isn't really at a stage where it's viable to deploy this across the range of areas where the card would be used, both in terms of cost and technology.

this is bloody gud card. cos at the moment there way too many fucke cards, have it all one its gud. - problem lose it and lose everything then ur in a strife (no problem have backups-like a spare card).

so have ur library crd. credit card. uni id card evrything on it and it would be gud.
as for reverse engineering, they can do that now ? cant they, but with biometrics, u need the person's finger, or maybe an eye.

You know, most biometric systems that I've looked at have failure rates all over the place, sometimes up to around 0.5% in either false positives or false negatives. That doesn't sound like a lot, but could mean that in Australia such a deployment messes up with around 100,000 people. Yeah, sounds great.

 

[Silver And Cold]

My ex has a brother whose name is Kok Wang.

Wow

An old teacher of mine was Kon Goh

Ok it's not as fun but..

Anyway, I'm not against the card but I can't say im for it either. I'm indifferent

hmm. i think if the government wants information on you they'll get it anyway so.. stop the cries of privacy invasion. it's annoying, noone cares what you do in life, especially not the government, unless of course you're planning on blowing stuff up but

 

[Terable Spellor]

I'm against the card, because it has no purpose. Waste of money.

 

[MRCUNT]

If you read my post, I've already addressed this. Biometrics isn't really at a stage where it's viable to deploy this across the range of areas where the card would be used, both in terms of cost and technology.


You know, most biometric systems that I've looked at have failure rates all over the place, sometimes up to around 0.5% in either false positives or false negatives. That doesn't sound like a lot, but could mean that in Australia such a deployment messes up with around 100,000 people. Yeah, sounds great.

and u do realise that technology is improving everyday, tho i doubt ur figures.
But in cost wise, it would save more money in the long run, it would save a lot time, and more efficiency can be achieved. considering 0.5% is pretty low, for a technology that is hardly used. have it developed and it could very well work. but as in any technology there is always going to be problems, its the question of how often, how bad, and how much it will cost to fix it.

but i think u find in the future that one card will hold everything. its simply a lot more organised. even use the card to start ur car, open ur house etc.

 

[davin]

of course, one card is a horribly insecure method to cover everything....because that means getting hold of one thing lets you take control over significant portions of someone's life