Digital ID needs to be resisted, surely?

[Honish]

There are just under 1 million illegal immigrants believed to be in Britain. The authories know who most of them are, and they are still here. Identifying them has never been the problem. We don't deport them, knowing who they are does not change this. This is one of the most breathtaking, blatant lies, made to us by our PM.

And the provider company for the digital ID, the person set make ever so many more millions than he already has, Tony Blairs son. How are people OK with this?

Totally agree. I was against digital IDs on grounds of privacy when they first were suggested. But these days, unless you are completely off the grid, you will have already shared far more information with private tech and retail companies than you will by having a digital ID. And the use of that information that you have given private tech and retail companies access to is regulated for the most part by the gargantuan and incomprehensible t's and C's that they draft for their benefit (not yours). The vast majority of people concerned about digital ID won't even have read those t's and c's before consenting to them in order to buy a pair of shoes.

*Unlike the government, those companies aren't subject to election or any form of public accountability and are motivated solely by how much money they can make out of using your information.

*edited

Some people drive these fancy, high end cars. They come with extras, but you can only access them by paying a monthly subscription. I think it's controlled by an app. If you stop paying, you don't get the heated steering wheel or whatever it is. Now imagine someone remotely having access to the digital controls in your rental car. They can prevent you from driving it unless you.....? No new wet fuel cars manufactured from 2030 I think. New electric cars will be unaffordable for ordinary people so they'll have to be leased/rented. The new cars will be linked to your digital identity and won't belong to you. The government could issue motorists with a certain number of miles each year and if you exceed this? The car won't start up. You won't be able to charge it.

This is an example of how such a model of digital control works.

They'll have your biometrics as well so you won't be able to pretend your auntie Mabel is driving it.

Great conspiracy theory imagination 🤣

But they can't control or access your bank account, check how many times you left your house on Tuesday or when you last saw your GP and what for.

Not to mention what happens when this information is inevitably hacked and Yuri from the dark web is able to see your private health and banking info.

And do you genuinely, really, think that this and things like this are going to happen?

You're sounding deeply paranoid.

Not at all. You're in for a shock if you really believe this isn't in the pipeline.

Fine, you can think that if you prefer. Paranoia is a clinical condition by the way. Being cynical, suspicious and not trusting the government is not.

I'm all for healthy cynicism, but the leap from digital IDs to not being able to drive a car that you've paid for is somewhat extreme.

But you won't have paid for it remember? It's rented. It's never your property. Streamed music is not your property either. They can remove albums from your collection at any point and for any reason.

It's a world wide push from tech giants particularly Larry Ellerson
who are financing the digital ID push.
He said:
“ The NHS in the UK has an incredible amount of population data, but it’s fragmented,” he told Blair in February of this year. “It’s not easily accessible by these AI models. We have to take all of this data we have in our country and move it into a single, if you will, unified data platform… The secret is to get all of that data in one place.”

Ellerson also said:
“Citizens will be on their best behavior because we’re constantly watching and recording everything that’s going on.”

He donated 257 million to the Tony Blair Institute (New Statesmen).

Money is no doubt a big part of it. Oracle and other high tech companies stand to make billions taking bits of our money here and there for every transaction. Governments like Keir Starmer’s also seem eager to give them billions in contracts to monitor and analyze the population.

taken from Shellenburger x.com/shellenberger/status/1972054371409318180

ellerson saying quote 'control the population' 2;16 onwards mins in

I'm completely ambivalent about it.

I'm fully aware that the government, councils, financial institutions, retail organisations and probably criminals ( via account hacking) have already got access to all my personal details, where I shop, what I buy, where I travel, what my medical issues are, what my income is and where it's derived.
When I was assessed to be a family foster carer I had to divulge to social services an incredible amount of personal information about my life, family, relationships, beliefs, ethics, politics which are all kept for either 75 or 25 years, no doubt they will be digitised already or at some point.
I don't have Facebook or social media like that so my life can't be seen on there, but millions of people put their family's every move, plaster photos and videos of their young children who have not consented to that all over it. Probably some of those people are frothing about digital ID because they've seen it on Tiktok.
If I walk past a CCTV camera my movements can be tracked.
If anyone is arrested their phone and devices are seized and every website they've visited and all their messages can be seen.

So to worry about what else will be available about me on a digital ID seems to me to be completely pointless.

There you go everyone. Is this paranoia?

And fucking Tony Blair? 🫩

We’re not that far off anyway. Bank accounts linked to biometrics or deleted. That’s an example of cough up with your info or don’t get the service. AI / data will progress pretty rapidly in next five to ten years.

It's not about the information being out there though. It's what they do with it. See what goes on in China with their beloved social credit system.

To be honest, I think you are vastly overestimating government (of any stripe) efficiency. It would mean a massive investment in cutting edge IT/AI and infrastructure to do this. Have you never noticed how antiquated government IT systems tend to be?

Have you noticed the very rapid development of AI and the massive data centres currently being built to deal with this data and processing power?

I'm surprised you're surprised by that.
Can't see the problem myself, our lives could be and are monitored already, it's irrelevant whether it's centralised or not.
If people behaved better that's surely a good thing?

Can people write a post without ‘frothing’ standard mn stuff, seems so old hat.

Yes there’s a lot of information already, the issue for government is how AI and data can be used for citizens in a joined up scheme. It’s not about illegal working.

Behaved better? I'd rather everyone remained free and had free will thanks. I'd rather people were free to be human beings as opposed to tax units, consumers, saps or things to be manipulated or controlled like they're in a Sims game.

Your information is inherantly very valuable. If the Government could connect your NHS data to your tax data to your DVLA data to your census data to your Electoral role data... well they'd know an awful lot about you that could conceivably be sold as a commodity. I am not a conspiracist and I think the government is FAR to inept to ever be able to tie our data together like this. Their efforts to pull your NHS information into a single electronic system have cost the country a lot of ££ but still haven't managed to connect me and my smeer test results together!

I certainly don't think these ID cards have anything to do with illegal immigration though. Somewhere they have something to do with making money for someone......

Even God allows us free will (hollow laugh)

Starmer relied on the Tony Blair Institute's polling.
Tony Blair Institute’s (TBI) polling may have misled Starmer into thinking that it was more popular than it is.
One reason to think Starmer relied on the TBI’s biased polling is that Starmer pitched the digital ID as necessary to stop mass migration. “I know working people are worried about the level of illegal migration into this country,” said Starmer. “Digital ID… will make it tougher to work illegally in this country, making our borders more secure.”

No thanks. I behave well as a decent citizen already. Exclude people from services and crime will rise anyway.

No

Throughtout Covid I was regularly out & about

I had valid reasons as I was doing peoples shopping & collecting prescriptions etc, and was in an online volunteer group

Though I had ‘justification’ I was never stopped and asked why in person nor picked up online