Future Intelligence’s sister organisation, TechTV’s programme on ID cards
The Government’s confused announcement of a Digital ID card scheme faces disaster, unless the Government sets out clear plans, according to experts contacted by Future Intelligence.
In what many observers have interpreted as a knee jerk reaction to head off opinion poll advances by the Reform Party, UK Premier Sir Kier Starmer, announced the introduction of a digital ID card scheme. The key benefit of which would be that without it you could not work. Though Sir Kier neglected to provide any further details.
A confusion that has provoked David Birch, one of the world’s leading experts on digital identity, to urgently call on the Government for clarity.
“I mean, I’m reluctant to call it a scheme. Let’s call it the government digital identity notion. So far, when journalists ask me: ‘what do you think about the government ID scheme?
“I reply; ‘well, I don’t think anything about it, because I don’t know what it is’.
“I mean, I’m reluctant to call it a scheme. Let’s call it the Government digital identity notion
David Birch
“You’d have to tell me what it is before I can form any opinion about it, and I have no clue what it is. I don’t think the government do either at the moment, so it’s all a bit up in the air,” said Birch, a former Professor at Surrey University, and now a Senior Research Fellow at King’s College Business School in London and a Digital Fellow at the University of Exeter Business School’s DIGIT Lab.
Massive protest across political divide
A confusion threatening to drown the scheme before it’s even launched. So far 2,984,192 people have signed a petition calling for the abandonment of the initiative. The opposition has come from across the political spectrum, and for a huge number of different reasons. Reasons that range from surveillance fears to cyber security concerns.
In an extraordinary twist, the muddle over the initiative from the Government’s proposal even extends to the Government.
According to the UK Premier, the scheme is intended to prevent illegal migrants from working, but that power already exists, said Sacha Wooldridge, the Head of Immigration at the law firm Birketts.
“Arguably, we already have a scheme whereby you can prove your right to work. As a British national, you can turn up with your passport, or birth certificate to prove your right to work.
“So, when the government says having digital IDs will stop illegal working in the UK, we already have a system that does that. Any further development of that, and rollout to British nationals isn’t going to make a huge amount of difference. As the government have already identified, things like illegal working will take place, just more underground.
“Reputable companies already want to do the right thing. Those that are intending to subvert the rules are going to do so anyway. A digital ID, I don’t think, would make a huge amount of difference in that respect…I think the key thing is trust.”
Public trust essential for ID card success
As several experts interviewed for Future Intelligence’s PassW0rd radio show – ‘Your country wants to know you’ – broadcast on Resonance FM, have pointed out, trust is essential.
Something stressed by Ott Velsberg, the chief data architect of the Estonian Government. So far Estonia’s extremely successful national ID card scheme has signed up 1m of the country’s population of 1.5m people.
“That data can only be collected and used for the reasons stipulated in the law itself. So, a data minimization principle. Now when it comes to the ownership of data, the most important part is citizen centric data governance. This is not too much talked about in the UK for instance.
“So enabling citizens to actually decide who the third parties or stakeholders are, who can use the data,” said Velsberg.
It’s a trust that the anti-ID card petition has proved the Government has already lost, but according to Alesandro Hatami, founder of the consultancy company Pacemakers, and an expert on digital ID systems, the benefits of getting ID cards right in the UK could be huge.
“Well, the thing is, we live in a world of digital services. If we can’t identify ourselves for these digital services, we will be excluded. Then we will have to pay high prices, and we will get a low quality of service.
The promise of digital ID cards
“The NHS could be more efficient, our taxation systems could be more efficient, our financial services organisation would be more efficient,” said Hatami, adding, many protesting had already developed digital IDs with Big Tech, for uses they were unaware about. Digital ID he said, promised the opportunity to develop a usable ID they could control
“What digital ID helps most is not the affluent. It’s not the middle classes. It’s the less affluent that can really benefit from having a means of authenticating themselves that is not a bank account, or a utility bill.
“So, it is about equality, it is about transparency, it’s about opportunity. Politicians are unhelpfully damaging the UK public by creating noise about something that is an obvious benefit to all of us,” said Hatami, who dismissed the fears of surveillance as misinformed.
So, it is about equality, it is about transparency, it’s about opportunity.
Alessandro Hatami
“State surveillance, what would that look like? The state would know where I bank, but the state knows where I bank. The state would know what my health situation is, but the state knows what my health situation is. So, the state would know where I’m trying to apply for a mortgage, or a loan, but the state already knows where I’m applying for a mortgage, or a loan.
“If the state wanted to control us, it doesn’t need the ID to do that. If you want to be a dictatorship you can control your people, you don’t need a digital ID to do so.
“So, digital ID just makes life easier, and we have to trust the government not to use it in a poor way. We trust the government not to do that in so many other fields. That is the fear, but the issue is not the digital ID, it’s how the government uses it.”
Government not a fit data guardian
A point that hits on the main problem. In survey after survey, the institution the British people trust least with their data is the Government.
A trust not helped by the UK Government’s susceptibility to cyber attacks, and data loss.
Since 2020 it has lost significant amounts of data.
During that time the Government has confirmed six cyber attacks. In one the entire Electoral Roll was stolen, in another the names and vetting details of 47,000 Metropolitan police officers, while the bank details and names of serving military personnel were lost following a hack on a Ministry of Defence payroll system, and a number of people claiming legal aid were also hacked amongst others.
The losses to cyber attacks were aggravated by the Government itself, which was responsible for seven other data losses including losing the details of 3,700 Afghans fleeing the Taliban accidentally leaked by UK Special Forces, while in another incident police in Norfolk and Suffolk accidentally published the personal details of 1,230 sexual abuse victims, witnesses and suspects on its website.
The woeful history of total UK Government data losses can be found here
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To listen to the PassW0rd radio programme on digital ID cards ‘Your country wants to know you’.
Click on the link below
To view the programme and additional material on TechTV please click on the link below.
