Fujitsu set to be preferred bidder in UK digital ID scheme
- Reference: 1711450812
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/03/26/fujitsu_id_card_scheme/
- Source link:
Fujitsu is understood to be the preferred bidder for the Proof of Age Standards Scheme (PASS) run by a non-profit company endorsed by the Home Office.
The government is set to extend the PASS scheme to phone-based digital ID cards. Although the physical cards, which employ holograms, can come from a number of companies, a single company is expected to build the software to verify users through a smartphone app or barcode scanner.
[1]
The contract, expected to be worth around £1 million, comes at a challenging time for the Japanese tech giant as it deals with the fallout from the Horizon Post Office scandal.
[2]Fujitsu's 30-year-old UK customs system just keeps hanging on
[3]Fujitsu to shutter operations in Republic of Ireland
[4]Fujitsu finance chief says sorry for IT giant's role in Post Office Horizon scandal
[5]Politicos demand full list of Fujitsu's public sector contract wins in wake of Post Office scandal
Some 736 Post Office branch managers were wrongfully convicted of fraud due to errors in the Horizon IT system. This destroyed the lives of the many involved, leaving some bankrupt and others feeling suicidal, with several tragically taking their own lives. Tens of individuals died before seeing any form of justice.
After a television drama on the subject aired, Paul Patterson, director of Fujitsu Services Ltd, admitted the company had a "moral obligation" to compensate those who were prosecuted.
[6]
[7]
In January, [8]Fujitsu wrote to the UK government to confirm it would no longer tender for business in the public sector amid the ongoing inquiry into the Post Office scandal.
However, it appears that the PASS procurement was already in train by the time that decision was being made.
[9]
A Fujitsu spokesperson told The Register : "The tender process for this work started in May 2022 and Fujitsu submitted a bid in response to the tender in June 2022. Fujitsu were selected as preferred bidder in January 2023. The tender process and being selected as preferred bidder pre-dated the guidelines that Fujitsu has put in place regarding bidding for new work with customers in the Public Sector."
The Register has also offered PASS and the Home Office the opportunity to comment.
The PASS scheme aims to offer proof of age for young people attempting to buy alcohol in the UK, where the legal age is 18. More controversially, the ID scheme is also used in elections, becoming one of the forms of ID allowing citizens to vote. ®
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[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZgL-KCtkt1LhiXqH2s4rbwAAAEo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/25/hmrc_chief_system_retirement/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/22/fujitsu_to_cease_operations_in_ireland/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/01/fujitsu_finance_chief_apologises_horizon_inquiry/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/22/uk_lawmakers_ask_treasury_for/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZgL-KCtkt1LhiXqH2s4rbwAAAEo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZgL-KCtkt1LhiXqH2s4rbwAAAEo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/19/fujitsu_pauses_uk_public_sector_contracts/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZgL-KCtkt1LhiXqH2s4rbwAAAEo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Confusion
Nice. For the analogy to be complete though - Joe would find himself staring in the mirror doubting whether what he could see there was really himself. Mind bending stuff.
Fujitsu - purveyors of the finest gaslights.
More control freak bollocks
Well it is, isn't it?
All that money to do something we do not need.
Of course it will start with digital ID for buying alcohol to protect underage kids, and end up with it being required for doing everything from claiming benefits, open bank accounts or sign up for a social media account before a decade is over once the mission creep kicks in.
Indeed. How long before "A UK government-endorsed ID card scheme" becomes "A UK government-mandated ID card scheme"?
As a non-smartphone user, can I just point out that you all gave in to this years ago. Your phone IS your ID!
Making some assumptions there buddy
I am pointing out how difficult it is to do many things without one, and how much personal information is contained on it and in the "services" accessed using it.
Hardly assumptions.
Who knows, we might just end up with a "government mandated smartphone" instead - same deal.
Yeah but it would cost 5k a pop and wouldn't work.
Under a Labour Government 100% it will.
They like to keep an eye on it's comrades as Tony Blair wanted this but bottled it.
Judging by the last trial that was abandoned at significant cost after a large-scale trial layout with no real "faults" found with the system?
Quite a long time.
Well all the work's been done already with the EU settled status app, all that has to be done now is getting the local population to use a variant. Probably starting with those people without passports (you can pay £££ to get a passport and prove your ID for x, y, and z or just use this app).
It's already started. When you renew your driving licence, DVLA's web site demands your NI number AND your passport details. These are of course critical to deciding if someone can drive. The only alternative is paying even more money and getting photographed at selected post offices.
That's called identity verification - asking for one government-issued document to verify your eligibility to renew another government-issued document is pretty standard and in fact necessary.
Also... you can not have a passport. My brother's literally never had one.
It's when you start joining them for non-goverment-issued tasks that it becomes a problem, and that's basically what killed the Manchester etc. trials - both legislatively and with the people.
not just that but the paper form has long had a space to enter your passport number and use that for verification. The online system refused to work when I needed to renew, so I used the D1 form and entered my passport number instead of having to send a birth cert or whatever.
I would say highly unlikely, considering I remember something similar (but without the app) offered to me at school when I was 15-16, this was around 2000.
They're just ways for kids to prove their age without carrying around their passport.
"Of course it will start with digital ID for buying alcohol to protect underage kids"
Indeed.
Because those kids will grow up and what happens to their data then?
Data fetishists always got to fetishise.
Really??!!!
There is no such thing as government any more, just big biz shills. Thank God I'm of an age where before too long none of this cr@p will affect me, unless of course Fujitsu get their hands on AI control of crematoria. I pity my kids and wish we'd never had them, and their kids.
"You can apply for a provisional driving license when you're 15 years and 9 months old." - gov.uk
What is the purpose of such a card for someone over 16? I always considered a driving license to be the defacto ID card in the UK...
I was under the impression these ID cards were for the unlikely event that a bus driver refused to allow someone who looks 20 to buy a child ticket. (Yeah right, the other day someone who was definitely over 18 and wearing an ASDA uniform bought a child ticket to the bus stop outside ASDA during the school day with no questions from the driver...)
What if you can't hold a driving license, e.g. for medical reasons?
Try holding a driving licence instead.
Might be actually useful
Fujitsu issues aside, a digital version of the PASS card might actually be an upgrade to the existing cards. Having bought one years ago I tried to go on nights out, only to find that bigger places wouldn't accept them as proof-of-age at all because you could go round the corner and buy them for a few quid that would look just as valid.
On top of that, I've worked in supermarkets on the tills. Not once has anyone ever tried to give me one of these cards, but quite a few have tried showing us their passport/driving licence on their phones; sometimes in an app, sometimes just a photo. We couldn't accept any digital ID at all because we had no way to verify its authenticity (impossible to check a hologram on a still photo).
If they can make sure there is sufficient privacy (in that requests for identity are not logged and can't be traced to you or the checker) then the phone version would make the PASS scheme actually useful.
Bung received..
Tory coffers obviously swelled in the usual manner that provides a get out of jail free for any issue caused by a corporate entity. Go one, you blue corruption supporters mark me down. don't give a shit. The UK always gets EXACTLY the government it deserves.
Re: Bung received..
The PASS scheme was launched in 2000, under a Labour government (or what passed for one under Bliar). He was also the PM who created national ID cards, and the National Identity Register database that went with them. The Tory/LibDem coalition scrapped the scheme and destroyed the database, as one of their first acts in office.
Re: Bung received..
That does not invalidate what OP says.
Re: Bung received..
Do you really think it's Ministers that get the bungs/directorships/whatever? Go look who actually signs off on these things - it's nobody elected.
Go look down the hall - Whitehall.
This is why things stay approximately the same degree of cr*p whoever is in power.
Re: Bung received..
Why not both?
Re: Bung received..
"Don't I get a cut?"
"No, Minister."
What could possibly go wrong.
Seriously government and large corps should give Fuji a wide berth, they have a proven track record of messing things up
Re: What could possibly go wrong.
they have a proven track record of messing things up
It's like perpetuum mobile for government contracts. No wonder we pay some highest taxes in living memory and nothing to show for it.
" give Fuji a wide berth, they have a proven track record of messing things up"
I've got some bad news for you Mr (or Ms) AC.
Every major SI (the only kind the senior civil service will deal with, as they gutted in-house skills decades ago, starting under Thatcher) has a history of IT related fu**ups.
But I agree anyone who knows anything about large client server systems (which is what Horizon was/is) would have known their "We have no remote access to the branches" was complete bu***hit.
You couldn't make it up!
Title says it all.
Failing up again
It seems that the big corporates can mess up as much and as often as they like. There's a total layer of impunity to protect them from consequences.
It's hard* to think of an honest reason for this.
*For "hard" read totally fucking impossible.
Fujitsu obviously have no shame.
If they were a decent company then they should have barred themselves from bidding on any Government contract for 10years.
Re: Fujitsu obviously have no shame.
Nah. If they were a decent company, Fushitsu's executives would have followed the Japanese tradition of seppuku.
Contract for a million = peanuts. Long game shite with them, as usual.
No joking or exaggeration, but Fujitsu's plan here is to 'accidentally' intertwine itself with multiple UK ID systems, so they have to become the preferred bidder for future contracts related to ID.
This is the same shit they pulled with Chief. The code was ordered by the CEO/board and execs to be overly complicated to do even simple tasks, so no-one BUT Fujitsu had a hope in hell of supporting it.
FJ has also (internally) decided it would LOVE a database of 16-20yr olds so it can sell the data once its contracts in the UK finally shutdown.
They will have names, photos, addresses, date of birth and a host of other stuff to sell to scam organizations and foreign governments. Hell they already sell HMRC data to China from the Chief import/export system.
FJ has also (internally) decided it would LOVE a database of 16-20yr olds so it can sell the data
That's just a fringe benefit.
The dream of all lovers of a cradle-to-grave surveillance system (which is what Blair's NIR was actually. The card was the least Orwellian part of it) is a clean load of verified details, name, address, DoB and of course a photo.
This is the long game beloved of the data fetishists that believe that an orderly society begins with orderly people.
And by "Orderly" I mean people who can be tracked from cradle to grave.
Sleepwalking bit by bit, into a new world order...
Confusion
police> Show your digital ID!
joe> There it is.
police> That's not you!
joe> Well, it is me.
police> In that case you are under arrest for identity theft!
joe> Wait, what?
police> You go with us.
*10 days later*
fushitesu> Our system works as expected, there are no errors and employees cannot modify the digital ID records when they are bored to their... oh sorry your honour... bored.
police> Yes, that person stole Joe's identify, we don't know who he is.
judge> Ok. based on the given evidence I deem that you are going to be sent to Rwanda tomorrow as we don't believe you are a British citizen. Computer clearly says you are not.
joe> Bollocks!
judge> Nice try mate, but in Fushitesu we trust.