Activists criticize Tony Blair’s ‘backward’ plan to force digital ID cards on all Britons, warning it would create a ‘control society’ and ‘put people at risk of identity theft and hacking’
- Big Brother Watch director Silkie Carlo broached the idea of a digital ID
- Downing Street ruled out taking advice from Sir Tony Blair and Lord Hague
Sir Tony Blair’s idea for every Briton to receive a ‘digital ID’ has been criticized as a ‘backward’ plan that would put people at risk of identity theft and hacking.
Big Brother Watch director Silkie Carlo said: “We don’t have to live in some kind of control society.”
Blair was accused yesterday of pushing a “creepy” plan for every Briton to be given a “digital ID” as part of a “technological reshaping of the state.”
The former prime minister joined former Conservative leader William Hague in calling on the government to introduce an ID card that people can keep on their phones and Keep details like your passport, driver’s license, tax records, qualifications, and entitlement to work status.
Raising concerns about the concept, Ms Carlo told Good Morning Britain: ‘When it comes to digital identification, that means introducing something like a digital rights bill that protects people’s privacy and means that we don’t have to live in some kind of control society where you have recognition control. facial and a massive database set up that records everything about you.
And that’s the kind of system they set up yesterday, which is totally backwards.
In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today program this morning, Sir Tony highlighted how countries “as small as Estonia and as big as India” are moving towards digital IDs.
“That’s the system that was removed in 2010. Blair’s ID cards were the vision of a giant database state where your identity is in one place.
‘It really puts people at risk of identity theft, hacking and changes the relationship between the citizen and the state. That is what really worries us.
His comments came after Sir Tony Blair and Lord Hague urged all citizens to receive a “digital ID” as part of a “fundamental reshaping of the state around technology”.
Former political rivals said the challenge of adapting to the new technological revolution meant putting aside partisan differences.
His plan would involve a new ID that would incorporate details such as a passport, driver’s license, tax records, qualifications and right to employment status that could be stored on a mobile phone.
In a joint article for The Times they said: ‘Politics must change radically because the world is changing radically.
“We are living through a 21st century technological revolution as enormous in its implications as the 19th century Industrial Revolution.”
They warned that politicians were in danger of carrying out a ‘twentieth century struggle on the fringes of tax and spending policy’ instead of grappling with the fundamental changes required in the new age.
“We both believe the challenge is so urgent, the danger of being left behind so great and the opportunities so exciting that a new sense of national purpose is needed across political dividing lines,” the former Labor and Conservative leaders said.
Big Brother Watch director Silkie Carlo said: ‘We don’t have to live in some kind of control society’
Sir Tony Blair has joined former Conservative leader William Hague in calling on the government to introduce a digital ID that people can have on their phones.
The couple suggested a Whitehall shakeup “including a digital ID for every citizen, a national health infrastructure that uses data to improve care and keep costs down, and sovereign AI systems supported by supercomputing capabilities.”
The Times reported that the couple’s plan, published in a report with more than 40 recommendations, included:
- Limit the power of the Treasury to manage investment in science and technology.
- Appoint ‘executive ministers’ outside Parliament to reshape Whitehall’s science and technology approach.
- Use AI to help teachers in schools and provide personalized support for students at home.
- Offering tax breaks to encourage pension fund investment in UK start-ups.
In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today program this morning, Sir Tony highlighted how countries “as small as Estonia and as big as India” are moving towards digital IDs.
“If you look at the biometric technology that allows you to make a digital ID today, you can overcome a lot of these problems,” he added.
Downing Street ruled out taking the advice of Sir Tony and Lord Hague.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘There are no plans to introduce a digital ID. Our position on physical identification remains unchanged.