Digital ID needs to be resisted, surely?

What an amazing coincidence.

The likes of Google are already tracking you unless you're taking very specific steps to prevent this.

A European id card is an id card. This will be a digital identity. There's a difference.

The EU is rolling out digital ID.

i haven’t been tracked or manipulated. I’ve nothing to hide and am happy with my ID card makes things more straightforward.

'Nothing to fear if you're a law abiding citizen'. Good grief, how many times has that been said before?

And no, I'm not paranoid, just cynical and can spot patterns and direction of travel.

Thanks for replying.

It is interesting that you mention The Fabian Society, which suddenly seems to be the villian du jour for the likes of Tommy Robinson. I thought it was Klaus Schwab and the WEF we had to be scared of?

I don't have strong feelings either way on digital ID, tbh, but I do think there are other things the government should be prioritising.

@smallglassbottle Do you suffer from paranoia? Because your postulations about what you think digital ID cards will bring in are not coming from a rational basis.
If you are a law-abiding UK citizen then I'm sure you have nothing to fear from it, your life will continue as normal.

I think it’s due to an old card another country put in place decades ago.

This isn’t about illegal immigration it’s about citizens. Why else would it be done? It’s not for the pp below not wanting to sort through a filing cabinet.

The Europeans who already have an identity card have an identity card. This isn't going to be just an identity card. It's an individual digital identity. It's not about 'papers please'. I wish it was 🤦🏼‍♀️

They don't yet have access to our bank accounts. This hasn't happened yet. They don't routinely deny passports to legal citizens. See the US examples further in this thread.

People aren't joining the dots.

Yes, it's the first step and people just aren't getting it.

Davos members? The Fabian Society? Agenda 2030? The elites, who are rich enough and hold the power necessary to implement such a system? Haven't you noticed that everything is very samey and corporate now? A few companies in the world own pretty much everything including food, medicine, housing, production etc. They're able to dictate what arrangements they'd like for countries to ensure the money keeps flowing in. Expect more rentals and subscription models going forward. They've stripped our country of money and we've nothing left to give in order to keep the capitalist machine running. They're still entitled to our cash though, so arrangements have to be made in order for this to continue. In addition to preventing social order from breaking down by ensuring we behave ourselves otherwise we won't be able to work, live somewhere or eat. We'll travel when they allow us to.

They say jump, our politicians ask how high.

People are asking repeatedly why we need more id. It's got nothing to do with proving id, migrants, illegal working, whatever.

Is that what the new digital ID will be tracking, @smallglassbottle, or is it a fear that what is proposed is the first step on a slippery slope towards the things you mention? I can see why people would be very worried if the Government was tracking the sorts of things you mention - although I suspect a lot of that information is already available to them, just not in a particularly joined-up way.

Tracking spending? Health? Movement activities? Who we associate with? What we write online? Which areas of the internet we access? Our opinions? What we spend our money on?

Because a social credit system hasn't yet been implemented. This is the precursor in the guise of an 'identity' card.

They'll all be linked and tied together thus making tracking and manipulation easier?

What do you mean by this?

I’ve lived in countries with digital id and can see the benefits for users (makes it easier to prove identity online etc).

I don’t see why it’s a priority though and Labour should have had it in their manifesto.

As a former labour supporter I’d like to see them stop being so reactive and start to talk positively about how they plan to stimulate growth.

Sure. So many emojis. Things haven’t changed at all in those 46 years wrt data and AI.

Me too. 🤣🤣

Though I am in favour of having ID cards, digital and/or physical. I first encountered them in the late seventies when I was about 13 and on a school exchange visit to Germany. I wondered then why we didn't have them in the UK and still do 46 years later (I'm 59 now). Not particularly because of legal/illegal immigration, just because they felt like a good and simple idea and still do. To me anyway.

The British do love to froth at the mouth over any potential change though. It can be hilarious. 🤣

I can understand that people have concerns about digital IDs - but I don't know how much extra information it will give to the Government, that it doesn't already have access to. I could be wrong, but I don't feel it will be handing over much - if any - more information than the Government already has on me, given that I have a passport and a driving licence, am registered for Disability Living Allowance, pay council tax, have an NI number, and paid tax and NI when I was working.

Why is digital ID going to remove your civil liberties and freedoms, when the government already has access to our information already via passports, driving licence etc? Exactly which freedoms do you think will be removed?

I agree with you. They do lie. On cards I can’t see the point in spending billions for just that.

If it’s to manage services then it has to be onerous and obtrusive alongside a cashless society to have any Impact. And then it just hits citizens and people who can’t access it turn to increased crime instead.

A better idea is to actually use borders to stop those entering you don’t want and leaving citizens alone.

This came up 20 years ago and people were very unhappy with it. Now not so much.

obviously it is to do with illegal working, tax, benefits, healthcare. This would be the default system for access and also recording your engagement with public services.

It will suit the government because they need to cut the number of civil servants and systems currently staffed by people to manage huge amounts of personal data. Not only are these systems clunky but people are often not great at administering them. A digital ID that manages your public access to benefits will also be able in time to access your bank account to check for evidence of fraud, working cash in hand using AI to check that against millions of other claimants.

I never thought the government had the capacity to implement this because it was too chaotic, and they could not integrate the information needed. 20 years you couldn’t have. Now you can.

I think it will oppressive for many potentially, particularly those who use public services a lot and receive benefits. But the implication here is that the government is entitled to do this since you are using them. This is one of those ideas that probably has utility for right abs left politicians, except Reform, who have other solutions

And it won’t stop a future government implementing it, including one who previously spoke against it, such as Farage. It would be easier for them, because the initial public fury will have died down, and by then, people will be scared of something else.