Do Brits generally approve of the new compulsory national digital ID?

[MsAmerica]

I admit I don't know much about it, but I find it creepy.

Do you think it's in reaction to the immigrant problem, or what?

I think it's a bad idea unless it includes some sort of authentication. Sounds much easier to forge a page on a mobile phone than an ID card.

What's creepy about it?

SURVEILLANCE? MISSION CREEP?

Duh.

What kind of thing do they do in America.

I don't know much about America (as you don't about Brits), but in every film bizzys ask for id.

i am defrazleeled and this is the way

I don't have an issue with it, but don't really care either way. What irritates me is that the same media channels that are up in arms about it are the ones that are so het up about migration. It will be a tool to make living in the UK illegally harder. There is literally nothing that this government could do that they wouldn't whinge about. They could bring world peace and the Daily Mail would do a sad face article about evil Keir putting arms manufacturers out of jobs.

The government isn't doing well, primarily by appearing to do nothing and having a terrible economic inheritance. But this is something and is likely to have some impact.

I also don’t really care, I don’t see a huge issue.

It'll cost millions, won't make a difference to immigration and the next government will end up scrapping it.

I'm ambivalent. Like most people I think. Nobody I know has so much as mentioned it.

It’s costed at 1.2 billion

And guess who profits …

Multiverse....the Company chosen to produce the UK's Digital ID app..... was founded by... Euan Blair......
Yup.... the SON of former Labour PM: TONY BLAIR

I don’t like it and I’ve lived places with compulsory ID where people are fined for not having it. Not me though, white, middle aged, never ever got stopped and asked. For some reason.

If anything is being made compulsory, people should be questioning why.

I don’t see any material benefit to the average person and only benefits for government and big business.

Having a single ID that can be linked across systems has so much potential to be misused, its actually terrifying and could (will) lead to a loss of personal freedoms. We are not supposed to live like this.

I've had one for 20+ years in Sweden (both a physical biometric card and the online authorised access one which has scannable QR codes that authorise your id)

I think it is a way of reducing fraud as you present/scan it to prove your eligibility or identity for

• medical treatment and accessing medical records
• education
• exams
• accessing public services (benefits etc)
• collecting parcels
• making large purchases
• travel - can travel within the Nordic countries and went to Finland with it

I have never had to show it to the police though apart when I got it through the police station passport office

I would imagine it's going to be a way for some shitty Capita like company to get its hands on loads of our information and probably charge us £50 for the privilege. There will be a lot of older people who won't have a clue how to access this.

An actual physical ID card like lots of EU countries on doesn't bother me-this would.

Tony Blair’s son’s company profits

I agree that people are always very keen to moan about anything the government does. They don't want to give their basic details to the government but Mumsnet already have 100 times more than that and they don't care.

It won't be scrapped. I think that it is very necessary and useful for many reasons.

Did you see they tracked down £500m in fraud using AI?

I imagine that would grow a great deal moreif they could more confidently identify people. It is often very difficult to establish definitively that the John Smith in one set of data is the same one as a John Smith in another. Unless you have a reliable and consistent identifier in both, of course.

I also think it will be useful for "joined up govenment"> Not just immigration but it will be useful for intra agency co operation (eg doctors / schools / social services).

It will also solve issues faced by the big professional services industries - banking, legal, financial who spend a lot of money & effort doing compliance /due diligence to make sure that they aren't dealing with proceeds of crime or engaging in money laundering.

I could give you a list of many more socially useful applications.

Why is it terrifying? I don’t get it.

Horizon postmasters scandal?

facial recognition incorrect identification

Hacking

Imagine a world where your ID is linked to your bank, internet use, healthcare, driving licence, ability to travel abroad, your social media accounts, shopping etc…

Currently many of these things require some kind of verification, some don’t (yet). Centralising these using a single source of ID effect provides endless information about you to whomever our government sees fit, and can be used to limit your personal freedoms e.g have a debt? They can take it right out of your account. Say something politically incorrect online? That’s your internet access suspended. Vaccination record out of date? That’s you banned from entering shops. Essentially it can and would lead to a fundamental loss of freedoms and the right to a private life. It could provide the power to essentially shut “undesirables” out of society.

its too big a price to pay for ‘convenience’ or to curb illegal immigration (which it wont do anyway).

Waste of money, all of which will go to the rich.
As always.

Respecfully disagree @MelliC

Fraudsters will always find ways around systems like this. It will always be a problem.

Professional services can do what they have always done to solve these problems. Employ people. We shouldnt be trying to automate every single part of life. Otherwise what’s the point in us all being here.

Agencies have enough forms of existing ID to join things up with NI numbers, birth certificates and passports.

The above benefits nowhere near outweigh the cost of our individual freedoms.

then there is also the fact that we will all have to pay for it. It will inevitably go over budget and cost billions more than we are initially told

And that’s before I even get to data security.

… yet none of this happens in the dozens of countries that have ID cards 🙄

ID Card is not the same as a Digital ID

I have no problem with it but I've lived in countries where it's standard for everyone to have an ID card. Not sure why it's taken us so long.