Home Office documents laying out what is probably late-2007 thinking on ID cards have been leaking to the press. Here (PDF) you will find a complete version of a document analyzing options, with extensive No2ID annotation. Interesting reading for those here, and not just because it’s worth understanding how the government is thinking about ID cards these days. The kind of thinking embodied in this document is, I think, a significant reason why citizens do not trust government.

wg

Don’t think anyone’s flagged the Demos pamphlet (PDF) released in November that lays out the need for a new way of thinking about issues of national security. Basically, Demos argues for increased integration within government and also an understanding that the nature of threats has changed since the Cold War. I found the link on Bruce Schneier’s blog; BS also notes that the UK government has decided to stop calling it a “War on Terror”.

Both these points seem important to me. At CFP2000, Neil Stephanson gave a keynote in which he talked about the importance of getting the threat model right. He was in fact talking about privacy - traditional notions of privacy have focused on the state as Big Brother while today’s threats are thousands of Little (or maybe medium-sized) Brothers (like phone companies, credit card companies, supermarkets - but the point is the same.

So I think it’s a good sign for IA that people are thinking seriously about the threat model and rhetoric in common use. Especially if they adapt correctly to changing conditions.

wg