Playing the Identity Card: Surveillance, Security and Identification in Global Perspective

by Bennett; Colin J.

• ISBN13: 9780415465632
• ISBN10: 041546563X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-09-11
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

National identity cards are in the news. While paper ID documents have been used in some countries for a long time, today's rapid growth features high-tech IDs with built-in biometrics and RFID chips. Both long-term trends towards e-Government and the more recent responses to 9/11 have prompted the quest for more stable identity systems. Commercial pressures mix with security rationales to catalyze ID development, aimed at accuracy, efficiency and speed. New ID systems also depend on computerized national registries. Many questions are raised about new IDs but they are often limited by focusing on the cards themselves or on "privacy." Playing the Identity Card shows not only the benefits of how the state can "see" citizens better using these instruments but also the challenges this raises for civil liberties and human rights. ID cards are part of a broader trend towards intensified surveillance and as such are understood very differently according to the history and cultures of the countries concerned.

Table of Contents

List of contributors	p. vii
Preface and acknowledgments	p. xi
Setting the scene	p. 1
Playing the ID card: Understanding the significance of identity card systems	p. 3
Governing by identity	p. 21
Plus ca change: Colonial legacies	p. 37
The elusive panopticon: The HANIS project and the politics of standards in South Africa	p. 39
China's second-generation national identity card: Merging culture, industry and technology	p. 57
Hong Kong's 'smart' ID card: Designed to be out of control	p. 75
A tale of the colonial age, or the banner of new tyranny? National identification card systems in Japan	p. 93
India's new ID card: Fuzzy logics, double meanings and ethnic ambiguities	p. 112
Population ID card systems in the Middle East: The case of the UAE	p. 128
Encountering democratic opposition	p. 143
Separating the sheep from the goats: The United Kingdom's National Registration programme and social sorting in the pre-electronic era	p. 145
The United Kingdom identity card scheme: Shifting motivations, static technologies	p. 163
The politics of Australia's 'Access Card'	p. 180
The INES biometric card and the politics of national identity assignment in France	p. 198
The United States Real ID Act and the securitization of identity	p. 218
Towards a National ID Card for Canada? External drivers and internal complexities	p. 233
Transnational regimes	p. 251
ICAO and the biometric RFID passport: History and analysis	p. 253
Another piece of Europe in your pocket: The European Health Insurance Card	p. 268
Index	p. 280
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