UK Government Decides Against Storing ID Card Data on Its Database for Now
The centralised government database has not met with strict security requirements and so the Identity and Passport Service seems to have changed its plan to store sensitive ID card data on it. The Department of Work and Pension’s (DWP) Customer Information System (CIS) may, however, store biographical details on the CIS in the near future.
Earlier work on this was to start in 2009 for a roll out in 2010/2011. As far back as 2006, the government had announced, “For NIR biographical information, we plan to use DWP’s Customer Information System (CIS) technology, subject to the successful completion of technical feasibility work…DWPs CIS technology is already used to hold records for everyone who has a National Insurance Number — i.e nearly everyone in the UK.”
The latest decision seems to have come in the wake of major security lapses including one where staff was caught checking out the records of acquaintances and celebrities, when they should not have been doing so. Of course the government now says that it was never its intention to use the database, but only use the same IT platform.
This does not mean that it will not happen in the future. Once the system is made more secure, biographical data would be controlled via access rights, while biometric data would be held on a separate database, the National Biometric Identity Service (NBIS).
Source: ZDNet