At 11:37 29/10/03 +0000, David Bishop wrote:
>I think the idea of a national database filled with biometric data etc.. is
>totally against the principles of freedom and democracy. Surely other
>RadStats members agree on this?
I really don't see how principles of freedom, let alone democracy, come
into this. Those (quite often those who 'have something to hide') with
concerns are much more likely to be concerned with 'loss of privacy' - but
even they are being unrealistic. The sort of information stored in the
sort of 'population register' under discussion would contain little, if
any, information in addition to that already available in databases
searchable (and linkable) by authorities.
I'm not suggesting that it is workable (currently, or in the forseeable
future), because I don't think it would be (and don't think it would be an
adequate replacement for our Census, anyway), but what legitimate reasons
would there be for objections to a non-public database which stored
information on, say, age, sex, ethnic origin and address?
Kind Regards
John
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