Quick Take…Are Digital IDs Coming Piecemeal?

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KIT KNIGHTLY

I’m starting to think a full-scale, nationwide compulsory digital ID won’t ever be a thing. Not officially, anyway. Not for quite a while.

It’s a vibe I feel coming off the news that gels more with the current methodology – the indirect authoritarianism of the easier path. Piecemeal tyranny washed in on waves of convenience.

According to a 2023 report (which resurfaced last week for some reason), in the near future, British citizens will likely need electronic “Carbon Passports” to travel. These will be digital documents that track and limit your travel based on carbon emissions.

During Covid, digital “vaccine passes” were needed to differentiate those who had been vaccinated from those who had not. If and when another “pandemic” rolls around, they will be used again.

From the end of this year, British driver’s licenses will be digital and accessed through the government’s wallet app. In the future, your road tax will be paid via GPS tracking of your car, linked to your driver’s license.

Late last year, the government began replacing previous immigration documents with “eVisas”, a process which is due to complete before the end of 2025.

The Online Safety Act has brought in widespread age verification online. Wouldn’t that be so much easier if we had a government app, like the one being trialled in the EU, which verifies your age “whilst keeping all other personal information private”?

In short, even before we officially have the infamous Digital ID, every interaction with the state is being digitised via an app on your phone, which you likely carry around with you all day, every day.

It must be taken entirely on trust that the app which tracks your international travel, the app which tracks your car, the app which tracks your taxes, the app which tracks your immigration status, the app which tracks your health records and the app which verifies your age are all entirely separate.

Do you truly believe they are?

The fact of the matter is that, in one form or another, every proposed usage of digital ID scheme either already exists or will do so in the near future.

The only reason to formally unify it into a single mandatory ID badge would be normalisation, a watermark transformation of the mental and emotional relationship between citizen and state.

I’m beginning to think we will have digital ID – brought in a little at time – for years before anyone in power decides to call it by its true name

And they won’t do that until they’re asked.

Starmer’s proposed national ID scheme may be theatrically scrapped, a development which could be sold as a massive win for human rights even while the digital ID infrastructure remains.

In the intervening years, the performatively “separate” apps and trackers and forms will be plagued by much-publicised “inefficiencies”, which columnists will complain “cost the taxpayer millions in the name of mythical privacy”. Campaigns will call for “a more unified digital system” which “boosts interdepartmental communication” in the name of “increasing efficiency and cutting administration costs”.

…And then they’ll pull back the curtain, and announce the “streamlined” digital identity service, which will have existed for years but never been acknowledged.

But maybe I’m wrong. It could be the introduced tomorrow.

This article (Quick Take…Are Digital IDs coming piecemeal?) was created and published by off Guardian and is republished here under “Fair Use” with attribution to the author Kit Knightly

See Related Article Below

“Starmer orders move towards digital ID system” – report

#together

Flailing, failing Keir Starmer has just let it be known he plans to impose a compulsory national digital ID scheme on us all.

Will you please join us as a member HERE to support the fight against this?

Starmer has used a write-up in the Observer to effectively announce this. Key passages include:

“The prime minister is seriously considering introducing a universal digital ID system…

Cabinet ministers say Starmer has become increasingly convinced of the need…

Downing Street is now considering in detail the “workability” of a unique digital identifier for all residents…

…a No 10 source said any hurdles were practical, not philosophical…

A report from the Starmerite think tank Labour Together recently called for No 10 to make digital ID a “top prime ministerial priority” and begin a “fundamental transformation in the way British citizens interact with the government”…

A new internal paper by the Tony Blair Institute on the role of technology in government, commissioned by Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s chief of staff, is understood to be “forceful” in pressing the case for digital ID as a way of meeting voters’ demands and heading off the threat from Reform UK.”

Needless to say, imposing a national digital ID system was nowhere in Labour’s manifesto – as Home Secretary Yvette Cooper pointed out herself, while denying this would happen shortly after the election!

If you’re wondering why the hell a national embarrassment like Tony “1m dead” Blair should have any influence over our lives at all…

If you think the name “Morgan McSweeney” rings a bell, because it keeps cropping up in regard to undeclared donations, shady censorship operations, and relatives on a £6m “gravy train” of asylum seeker accommodation at odds with the “tough on immigration” talk…

If in short you are sick to the back teeth of this nightmarish, sleazy nonsense, and want to stop it for good… join us as a member today, HERE.

Because what happens now is entirely up to us…

The more members we have, the more chance we have of stopping this in its tracks – and ensuring a free future for ourselves, our kids, and our grandkids.

A few weeks ago, we beamed the NO TO DIGITAL ID message on to Parliament – but clearly we need to do much more.

The only way we can, is through member support.

Please join us here today and let’s get to work. Thank you.

SOURCE: #together

*****

Digital ID: How To Respond To Parliamentary Inquiry

#together

The Home Affairs Select Committee has launched an inquiry into Digital ID.

The deadline is 21 August – it is really important we all respond. Here’s how:

STEP 1: Adapt our template below for your own response

IMPORTANT: We strongly encourage you to edit this and “make it your own” with your own thoughts.

Unique responses are likely to be taken much more seriously.

Note: several of the questions are specialist and not that relevant to the average person, which is why we don’t address every question in the template.

Dear Chair Dame Bradley and Members of the Home Affairs Select Committee,

I am writing in response to your call for evidence for the inquiry, “Harnessing the potential of new forms of digital ID.”

I am an individual extremely concerned about the prospect of compulsory digital ID, and would like to address some of the questions:

QUESTION 2. What potential benefits could the use of new forms of government-issued digital identification have for the Government’s ambitions to reduce crime and to manage migration?

It is hard to see any potential benefits for digital ID in these areas that could possibly outweigh the risks. Passports and visas are sufficient forms of identification at borders and exits. Illegal immigrants will not be using legitimate points of entry and presumably must have already circumvented other countries’ ID schemes to get to the UK in the first place. Police and financial institutions already have the capacity to check identification when necessary through existing documentation.

QUESTION 3: What different categories of information about individuals could most usefully be included in government-issued digital identification?

This question highlights a major risk of digital ID, that a centralised system becomes a catch-all database, with all sorts of information held on a “just in case” basis, potentially becoming a government file on citizens. This is not appropriate in a democratic society and is likely to cause a range of serious problems. Personallyas a British citizen, I would not be comfortable living in a society where the government holds a large amount of personal information about me. The level and kind of information for any government-issued documentation should meet the requirements for that particular document or service but not exceed them.

QUESTION 4: What potential risks does the adoption of new forms of digital identification have for individuals, including risks to privacy and security of personal data?

As a British citizen, I believe I should be free to live without mandatory ID checks or constant verification. I have a right to privacy and to control my personal data. A centralised digital ID system undermines that, risking misuse by current or future governments, such as enforcing “vaccine passports” or restricting access to services. Once introduced, it could be hard to limit or reverse. The government has previously denied plans for mandatory digital ID, so this reversal raises serious trust issues.

As to risks of data breaches – the state’s track record is so pitiful it beggars belief, the Afghan data breach scandal being only the most recent in a very long list. Add to this the poor track record specific to the One Login system and outsourcing to countries with weak cybersecurity reputations. Digital ID could expose sensitive health and personal data to third parties, including commercial partners and overseas contractors. It would also exclude those without smartphones or digital access. I want the right to verify my identity offline – securely, privately, and without coercion.

I am strongly opposed to any plan for compulsory digital ID or ID cards, which I believe would erode our privacy, undermine British values, and move us towards a “Papers Please” society that has no place in this country.

Yours sincerely,

STEP 2: Copy and paste your words into a document

For example Word format

Be sure to add your name
Save your finished document ready for submitting

STEP 3: Submit your document

Follow the process of submitting your document via the Inquiry web page:

CLICK HERE to start the process of submitting the document you just created

STEP 4: To maximise responses, please share a link to this guide on social media – template below

You can copy and paste this text (download and add THIS IMAGE to your post for “bonus points!”)

Any plan for compulsory digital ID or ID cards would erode our privacy, undermine British values, and move us towards a “Papers Please” society that has no place in this country. I just responded to the Parliamentary Inquiry – please do the same before 21 Aug deadline. I used the free “how to” guide from #together here:

https://togetherdeclaration.org/respond

SOURCE: #together

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