Big Brother Watch director, Silkie Carlo, debates Liina Vahtras, managing director at E-residency. Ms Carlo set out the civil liberties implications of a digital ID. She said:
“Yes: This strikes at the heart of British civil liberties. We are not a papers carrying country
The first sign that Starmer’s digital ID cards are an assault on British liberties is this – you have no choice in whether to have one or not. That instantly makes it an oppressive scheme.
It would be one thing to make a digital ID available to people who want one, but this mandatory scheme is being forced on the public whether you want one or not. And it has
already been paired with serious restrictions on our liberty – if you don’t show your digital ID, you won’t be able to legally work.
In Starmer’s Britain, anyone from teenagers starting their first paper round to pensioners working at their local garden centre won’t be able to work unless they present this mandatory digital ID card. A British passport will no longer be documentation that is British enough to legally work.
Ministers are already talking about the multiple other uses for the mandatory digital IDs – including as a requirement to rent, to receive benefits, open a bank account, vote and much more.
So how long will it be before you can’t rent unless you show your digital ID? How long before you can’t see a doctor, go to school, open a bank or even vote without a digital ID?
This strikes at the heart of British civil liberties. We are not a papers carrying country. We have never had checkpoints, much less biometric, digital checkpoints like China. We have liberties by virtue of being on British soil, not because we have a government-issued permit. But Starmer’s digital ID will invert our British civil liberties into a civil license to be granted and indeed withdrawn by the state.”
City A.M. – The Debate: Will digital ID actually erode our civil liberties?