A secure, optional digital ID could be useful. But not in today’s UK. Why? Because the state has already shown it can’t be trusted with our data. - Snoopers’ Charter (Investigatory Powers Act 2016): ISPs must keep a year’s worth of records of which websites you visit. More than 40 agencies—from MI5 to the Welsh Ambulance Service—can request it. MI5 has already broken the rules and kept data it shouldn’t have. - Encry…
I wonder if zkSTARKS could help here. Prove that the validity of a statement (like "I am a citizen that is authorized to receive benefits") without revealing your precise identity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-interactive_zero-knowledge...
Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers
551–560 of 809 posts
Re: Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers
#552The same thing is happening in Greece. The new mandatory digital ID replaces and unifies everything about citizens in one place, "to make it easier for government services to share information between each other". It can indeed be useful, but the privacy implications are enormous. Just imagine that a policeman, employer or anybody else with access to the information linked to the ID can instantly view our medical rec…
??? do not rely on incompetence for privacy. anyway, privacy is dead - longer conversation, but even if you don't carry your cell, there's cameras everywhere with face/gate recognition.
Re: Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers
#553Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hah this is the UK. No, it'll be optional to begin with to make people like you asking important questions seem like a whacko. Then once they use propaganda to make people opt into it, and it reaches mass adoption, then it'll quietly be made mandatory - or extremely annoying not to have it
No, it will be mandatory right from the start, and employers will be required to check it https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/digital-id-ca...
No, it won't be mandatory in all situations all at once, for every facet of life (I did not specify employment).
Re: Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers
#554I am quite confused by this point: > A new digital ID scheme will help combat illegal working If you are an immigrant you already have to prove your right to work with a share code: https://www.gov.uk/prove-right-to-work/get-a-share-code-onli... And if you claim to be a citizen you must show a passport or birth certificate: https://www.gov.uk/prove-right-to-work So how exactly will this new digital ID help "stop thos…
Showing a birth certificate isn’t a particularly hard bar to pass if you want to fake that you’re a national to be fair. You need just that and a printed letter and there’s nothing an employer will do beyond copying that (afaik you can’t look up a birth certificate and check it’s valid)
This is where you get certified copies should you ever need that for interfacing with foreign governments that want them (the European country I live in very much wants a copy of my birth certificate).
It's not an identity check by any means but a legitimate birth certificate ought to be findable here.
But yes birth cert + utility bill is a very, very weak binding to identity.
Re: Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers
#555I didn't watch the video, but have read other reports, and it's worth noting that the context for this is the Labour Party conference, which starts on Sunday. The UK govt are under pressure from the tories and Reform to do something about people entering the UK from France by crossing the channel in small boats. Nothing much seems to be working. So this announcement is about trying to control the narrative by making…
The small boats crossing are a small fraction of immigration. Some Google number claims 37k people got in this way in 2024. With net migration hovering around 0.8-1m people per year, arrivals must be well above this number (surely some people are leaving, making the net number smaller). But even then, this is less than 5% of the legal immigration, and probably a lot less than that. I'm not saying it doesn't need addr…
Re: Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers
#556[flagged]
I assume you're not from the UK? If we wanted we could stop illegal immigration extremely fast – as you say we are an island so it's relatively easy to stop people arriving. We don't need drones. At the moment after the French have given life-jackets to the illegal migrants and their boats have set off into the British channel, the people smugglers will call the British coast guard and ask them to go pick up the migr…
Why shouldn't France give life jackets and boats to people who want to leave France?
Re: Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers
#557Before the election I was approached by a bubbly young woman who tried to persuade me to vote Labour: "No thanks, last time I did that they tried to introduce ID cards", "But that's not in our manifesto" she replied, "It wasn't the last time I voted for them either". It gives me no pleasure to be right on this.
Could you explain what it is you find so distasteful about ID cards? I mean if you have a passport then you already have an 'ID card', but I certainly don't want to take that out with me to prove my age.
Re: Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers
#558Earlier quoted context omitted.
The number of rapes is at an all time high, increased more than fourfold in the last couple decades: https://www.statista.com/statistics/283100/recorded-rape-off...
Considering that up until a couple decades ago women would be ostracized from society for disclosing that they were raped, that isn't surprising.
Re: Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers
#559Earlier quoted context omitted.
Crime is literally at all time lows
The number of rapes is at an all time high, increased more than fourfold in the last couple decades: https://www.statista.com/statistics/283100/recorded-rape-off...
Assuming statista is a legit data source.
Re: Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers
#560Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also, please authenticate with your digital ID before posting on social media.
That is not a requirement though. And if it came in I would be against it. So what is your point?