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Israeli government’s call for mandatory biometric ID system met with backlash

51 points| khuranagam | 9 years ago |biometricupdate.com | reply

15 comments

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[+] ohadron|9 years ago|reply
Unfortunately, despite wide consensus within the academic and professional communities, there's no real public backlash against the biometrics database.

It's hard to explain to a common Israeli why a database is dangerous. The security argument is blinding, and it seems like we are going towards making this huge mistake.

There's currently an effort to stop this and a crowd-funding campaign launched this week aiming to finance a plea to the supreme court is so far successful (https://www.headstart.co.il/project.aspx?id=19914)

[+] pjc50|9 years ago|reply
I would have thought a country where some parliamentarians still have their Auchwitz numbers tatooed on their arms would understand, but I guess everyone assumes that the database will be used against some other ethnic group instead.
[+] KumarAseem|9 years ago|reply
It is the same in India, and I guess same everywhere. Because of people being illiterate and with the attitude of "this can never happen to me", we have a unique ID system forced down the throat of the citizens.
[+] toyg|9 years ago|reply
> It's hard to explain to a common Israeli why a database is dangerous.

If true, that's a huge educational failure. After all, Israel exists because the Nazis were a bit too good at using paper-based databases, with "unique biometric IDs" on people's arms. It's astonishing that Israeli citizens, of all people, should have forgotten where this sort of approach inevitably leads.

[+] fnord123|9 years ago|reply
I wonder if Aryeh Deri has picked up a directorship at DNA Bioscience. This is what David Blunkett did in the UK while he was pressing hard for a biometric identity card and national database for the UK.

Checking his wikipedia page, it seems there's no need to give him a directorship. He'll accept cash:

""" After Deri was convicted of taking $155,000 in bribes while serving as Interior Minister, and was given a three-year jail sentence in 2000. He was replaced by Eli Yishai.[1][2] Due to good behavior, Deri was released from Maasiyahu Prison in 2002 after serving 22 months.[3] """

[+] ghostDancer|9 years ago|reply
It's curious how politicians, all around the world, almost never fulfill their sentences. At least that's how it looks.