Some interesting tech stories in the Sunday papers this weekend: the ID card fiasco bubbles on, and there’s a terrifying story about the Operation Ore porn crackdown.

ID cards first. I won’t bother linking because there’s far too many stories, but to summarise: the cost could now be as high as £16 billion, EDS – the firm behind the tax credits disaster, a company that couldn’t hit a cow’s arse with a banjo – is almost certainly going to be involved, the cards may revert to a Chip and PIN system because biometrics aren’t reliable enough, and our personal data may be sold to private companies to help defray the soaring cost of the whole ridiculous scheme. The government has responded by sticking its fingers in its ears and chanting “Nah nah nah can’t hear you”.

Remember Operation Ore, the international crackdown on illegal porn? According to a terrifying report by Duncan Campbell, some of the alleged predators caught up in the case may have been innocent. He writes:

The men on the list are accused of having paid for child porn through Landslide, a website that operated in Texas from 1996-9. So far, about 1,200 cases have resulted in convictions. The public has been led to believe that a huge number of unsavoury — and possibly dangerous — men have been brought to book.

…my investigations and work as an expert witness in a number of Operation Ore cases have led me to believe that the evidence has been exaggerated and used unacceptably.