The home secretary's proposals for identity, or "entitlement", cards fell on stony ground last year. But the French will not close Sangatte unless Britain makes itself less attractive to people smugglers. The French have identity cards, so why, they say, shouldn't the British?
The new card, to be called Ambrosia, will bring the UK into line. It will be available to all customers of the Inland Revenue, Customs and Excise, Police, Prison Service, schools, the National Health Service, the Driving Licence Agency and, of course, the Benefits Agencies. To paraphrase Nectar "great department of state, thousands of rewards, one new card."
British citizens can collect Ambrosia points by spending money in all participating retailers (VAT) or handing over tax directly. To quote Nectar again "once you have collected enough points for the reward you want, the choice is yours".
Free schooling and police responses to 999 calls are examples. And welfare benefits too. None of these will be available to illegal immigrants and others of whom the government disapproves. Nectar is piloting the right to close accounts, that is, to remove the benefits of the card, almost at will (rule 17) and to change any rules (rule 18) although it will give "as much notice as it reasonably can".
Lord Tebbit will be endorsing the Ambrosia card on the understanding it will be withdrawn from any British citizen caught supporting a foreign team. Although Alastair Campbell has pointed out that Big Brother is the most popular show on TV, civil liberties have occupied much of the top-secret discussion.
The main difference between loyalty cards today and Green Shield stamps of yore is that the cards provide very specific data about individual habits, which marketers can use to fine-tune the targeting of products.
This reduces waste of time and money for both sides, but civil libertarians worry that Big Brother will end up knowing more about us than we know ourselves. When the data is shared across large retailers, as with Nectar, or across departments of state, as with Ambrosia, the potential problem is compounded.
Here again Nectar provides the lead in its 'Policy on Privacy and Data Protection'. "Information regarding the specific goods or services you buy from a particular participating company will not be passed to us or any other participating company except where required to operate the Nectar programme."
In theory, government departments are not allowed to swap personal data.
Surely welfare fraud detection officers would not check income tax records?
Of course not. And do not be alarmed by the proposals for MI5 to monitor e-mails and bank accounts. Ambrosia's rules will be straightforward: "The government hereby guarantees that individual privacy will be strictly protected except where it decides not to do so."
So there you have it. Nectar is setting a precedent today for Ambrosia.
Big Brother has discovered marketing.
_1.jpg)
.jpg)
