A brief update on digital ID
Two short clips plus details of the last chance to respond to the government's open consultation on “making public services work for you with your digital identity”
This is a brief post further to last week’s Together “Scrap Digital ID” rally which featured two short clips plus details of the last chance to respond to the government’s open consultation on “making public services work for you with your digital identity”.
The first clip is from NO2ID’s Phil Booth, who I featured in The danger of digital ID, and how to push back:
They’re preparing people… with apps on your phone… the GovUK app… the GovUK wallet. Government code on your phone… they’re going to encourage you to get a digital version of your passport… a digital version of your driving license… put it in the app, because, “Oh, it’s so convenient.”
But that’s prepping you for the digital ID, and behind the digital ID… the lifelong ID number that they want to stamp on you for life. And they want to get you to apply for this… for your newborn child… for your kids… to access… support…. the services, the benefits that our taxes pay for.
They want to be able to track every time you prove something about yourself… get a new bank account… a new social media account… This is a whole system, and we must stop it.
And the second one is from Paul Frew, a Member of the Legislative Assembly in Northern Ireland:
You give data to private organisations all the time, but they cannot compel you to do so. You still have a choice. [And] any information you give to a private organisation, you can take back. We can choose when we give our personal data… to any organisation or business or even any private entity.
But only the government can create laws that affect your life. Private business can’t do that. Private entities can’t do that. But government… who would control this, digital ID… can also make laws that can coerce you to do things or not to do things. And that’s where the danger lies…
I am reminded of this post featuring some of what happened in parts of Europe during the covid era:
Footage of the whole Together rally is available here:
The UK government’s open consultation on “making public services work for you with your digital identity” is still open, but only until 12:30 on Tuesday:
Responses do not have to be lengthy to make a difference. At this stage I suspect that ten short responses would make much more difference than a single one ten times as long.
How much difference does it actually make? I don’t know. But I am sure that this sort of pushback has at least some effect.
For anyone wondering, the Rt Hon Darren Jones MP is the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, who said in September that digital ID could form “the bedrock of the modern state”…
Here he is in a short video that I featured in the Digital ID by the back door section of March’s Updates post:
“Making public services work for you”…
Related
This recent short post:
And:
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