Names Are Not Unique IDs and the UK Government's "Digital ID System" Would be a Nightmare
Digital surveillance, "apps", and worse (all the time)
Labour lost in 2010. It didn't regain power for many years to follow. Peter Mandelson seems like a common theme (now and then) and I still remember seeing the ID card of a friend's partner in his loft. It was rendered worthless and useless; she was an "early adopter".
Knowing her in person, I reject the idea (or ID) that only "Luddites" would say "no!" to such cards. In fact, it seems that the more technical and knowledgeable a person is, the more likely s/he is to turn it down. It may sound counter-intuitive, but in my country the more geeky a person is, the more sceptical of "Tech" the person is. Maybe for the same reasons chefs and cooks are picky in what they eat.
Who stands to profit from this? Who gains greater power? The general public? Who's empowered here?
Now the same party wants a bad idea to make a comeback. What has actually changed other than the rhetoric and narratives?
Pretty much nothing has changed.
So there are already recycled rebuttals; we saw several on the Web and already saw several in Geminispace as well. Today (hours ago) someone said "ID cards are back. No2ID will be back too."
The gist:
Anyone in the UK will have seen the announcement on Thursday that the government is proposing to bring in a digital ID system. Even usually apolitical people are talking about it.
[...]
There are perfectly good dialectic arguments for this, but, like the arguments for the other Blairite projects of European integration and euthanising the poor, they can't be uttered in polite society.
So what we're left with is rhetorical arguments that are supposed to communicate "I am on board with the establishment's pet projects" dressed up as "here is a logical / factual / scientific / ethical case for the establishment's pet projects".
Those are the moral issues, but there are also technical issues, which are broader and can be generalised to illustrate the stupidity of the scheme. It simply won't work; well, it would not solve the issues it claims to be tackling and instead create new problems while tackling so-called 'issues' they don't tell us about.
They tell us that a bunch of "apps" or "code" or "cards" will tackle mass immigration and illegal work(ers). The solutions aren't "soft" though; the reason they push mass surveillance isn't what many are led to believe. I'm sure Andy F. et al will cover this soon.
This is what the front page of RMS says:
No national identity cards
I'd like to make a list of countries that do not require a national identity card, and have no plans to adopt one. If you live in or have confirmed knowledge of such a country, please send email to rms at gnu.org.
Here's my list of countries with no national ID cards and no plans for one: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK. Australia's previous government tried to institute national ID cards, but the Labor government dropped the plan.
India has mostly finished imposing a national biometric ID number in a grand act of oppression.
Switzerland has national ID cards which are optional, but they or some other government ID card are needed for some purposes.
Iceland doesn't have ID cards as such, but they have ID numbers that citizens are forced to use frequently. For example, the national ID number is often required to rent a video or use a gym.
Denmark issues non-photo ID cards with a "person number", and many services use this card to identify people.
Norway will impose a national biometric ID card.
Ireland - national ID card by stealth.
ACLU: the five dangers of national ID cards.
Wikipedia has a list of identity card policies by country.
24 days ago he wrote about this in relation to his country:
2 months earlier he wrote: "China has set up a national government system for internet accounts, enabling uniform ID checks on all platforms. Every unified national system of internet accounts is a scheme ready-made for repression. Whatever its purpose is — even if it is only to verify a person's age — it will enable the government to track all of everyone's internet use, on all servers that the state chooses to impose this on. Combine that with a would-be autocrat and it is disaster."
Those are only some of the many issues and real, potent dangers. █