Re: insidious biometrics, identity crises

[Simon Wilcox <essuu@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 28 Aug 2003, Robin Berjon wrote:

> As a Frog, I probably have a slightly different take on this. We've had
> compulsory ID cards forever (well, for much longer than my lifetime) and
> are accustomed to them. Somewhere between 93-95, a thumbprint was added
> to them.  That's biometrics, but well, pretty shallow as biometrics go.

The government claims that an entitlement/identity card will cut down on
benefit fraud. This is one of their biggest "selling" points. It would be
interesting to compare the level of benefit fraud between countries with
and without id cards.

For instance, does France suffer a significantly lower instance of benefit 
fraud than the UK and if so, is this solely attributable to the existence 
of ID cards or are there other procedural explanations ?

Anyone able to point to research in this area ?

Simon.

-- 
"Counterpoint the surrealism of the underlying metaphor"