The question is like asking whether the entries in a database should be given consecutive numbers to assist searches. But so far as they might be useful before a fully digital system can be implemented, we are against them. Views are invited on the acceptability of an identity card which contained data information about the cardholder in machine readable form and the possibility that this data could be used for biometric tests. Our answers are wholly based on the assumption that identity cards would be of this kind. But we will confirm that the suggestion is unacceptable to us.
Identity cards are bad.
Anything that adds to their efficiency only makes them worse. Try Turkey, where political and social dissidents have special holes punched in their cards. Try Rwanda, where the Tutsi and Hutu butchers could only decide whom and whom not to kill by checking their identity cards. Try France, where identity cards checks are used to harass racial minorities. Try modern Germany, where they are used to frighten homosexuals.