Labour approves digital IDs
The “two-click killer” – a phrase that encapsulates the offensively flippant way in which our Prime Minister depicted the indescribably evil Southport murderer as little more than a technology problem.
His inevitable solution – tighter internet controls – are just as reductive: a one-click policy, seemingly always at the tip of the fingers of ministers who lack the political or intellectual will to genuinely enquire into the deep and complex problems in British society.
Age checks for restricted items are important and already conducted by online retailers and couriers. But any mistake on an Amazon delivery of a knife – an object available in every kitchen in the country – to a young man who was days away from turning 18 anyway, can merit barely a footnote in explaining his extraordinarily barbaric behaviour.
To trot out soundbite policies that provide absolutely no remedy to address the extreme ultra-violence that a minority of sadistic, disturbed men seem hell-bent on inflicting against mostly women and girls is an insult to the general public.
In fact, it has been one of the most dystopian weeks for the Labour government on technology – which vowed to introduce digital IDs (starting with driving licenses) in new all-encompassing “digital wallets” on our phones. Our new government app will hold masses of information on each of us from tax to health data, drawn from multiple departments. It has the hallmarks of the dreaded database state envisaged with Blair’s failed ID system – only digital and with the addition of our biometric facial recognition data, making it the perfect Orwellian nightmare.
This new digital ID system would be less worrying if it were genuinely optional. But, in the Data Bill debated in parliament yesterday, the government is inexplicably refusing to legally protect our right to use non-digital ID.
Do you want police prosecutions left to AI?
Yesterday’s Data Bill will also open the floodgates to more AI decisions being made about serious aspects of our lives by the government and private companies – from who gets organ transplants and who police decide to prosecute or let go, to who to hire and fire and who to give a loan to. The Bill significantly reduces current safeguards – including our right to even know these automated decisions are taking place. From a government aiming to transform British society with AI, diluting the few rights we have is an alarming start.
The Bank Spying Bill
That’s not all – the government just introduced powers to automate spying on our bank accounts too.
The Public Authorities (Fraud, Error & Recovery) Bill (aka Bank Spying Bill) will force our banks to spy on us, all the time, on the premise of looking for potential indicators of welfare fraud or errors – including the government’s own errors. Unrecovered overpayments could result in your (newly digital) driving licenses being suspended.
The government already has extensive powers to go after genuine fraudsters. This will simply turn Britain’s once-compassionate welfare system into a digital surveillance system.
City AM – Digital IDs and biometric data: Welcome to Labour’s tech dystopia