The Scottish Government is rolling out a new digital identity system called ScotAccount for people to access a broad range of government services including taxes, health and benefits. Privacy rights campaigners raise Big Brother concerns and fear the system could become mandatory by default over time.
Madeleine Stone of Big Brother Watch said: ‘Digital identity systems are a honeypot for criminals and hackers. These plans could give the Scottish government free rein to build huge population wide-datasets and to share the personal information of millions of users between government departments.’
‘We urgently need a legal right to non-digital ID, otherwise such schemes could become a mandatory ID system in all but name, disadvantaging the millions of people in this country who rely on physical documents and letters, and cannot or choose not to use digital identity systems.’
Daily Mail – New ‘digital ID’ sparks fears of ‘Big Brother’ privacy threat