Financial Times FT.com

National ID card plan faces flaw

By Clive Cookson in York

Published: September 12 2007 03:00 | Last updated: September 12 2007 03:00

A "fundamental flaw" in the government's proposed ID cards and photo surveillance systems is the difficulty both people and computers have in recognising faces from photographs, the BA Festival of Science in York heard yesterday.

"This routine task, performed hundreds of times every day by passport officers, security guards and police officers turns out to be highly error-prone," said Rob Jenkins, a psychologist studying the problem at Glasgow University.

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