No, this blog is not about what happens when a group of ants and houseflies gather on your doorknob, and start talking about whether it is better to have a million eyes, or to be able to lift a hundred times your own weight. (We all know it is better to be able to lift a hundred times your own weight!!)

Door knobs have been dragged into the public arena in the UK, where the government is planning to establish an ID card system for all private citizens, using their biometric details. Sounds scarily like something out of Terminator 2, doesn’t it?!

Anti-ID card campaigners are putting up posters in tube stations and public toilets, promising a reward for anyone that can lawfully obtain the fingerprints of the Prime Minister or Home Secretary. They suggest lifting them from hard surfaces such as door knobs, or drinking glasses. If they are lawfully obtained, the group intends to publish them, and pay the reward money to a charity that the print-hunter chooses. The reward is ₤1,000. Not bad!

I think the ploy is quite fair enough. No doubt one of the arguments used by the ID card campaigners is that if people choose not to do anything wrong, it won’t make a difference who has their biometric details. Presumably the information would be used in conjunction with police investigations, as a forensic database to help in solving crimes. And if it matters so little whether your fingerprints are public knowledge, as the politicians claim, then they won’t object in the slightest to the actions of the group.

This is a recent story, so we will see what the pollies actually say. And in the meantime, if you know of a charity that deserves ₤1,000, get out your best spy beanie and fingerprint dust, and start plotting a door knob trail of London!

          

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