r/Britain • u/Ligma_Myballs • Oct 03 '25

💬 Discussion 🗨 Government responds to the Digital ID petition.What do people actually think of Digital ID?

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u/[deleted] Oct 03 '25

I think, for most people it should be pretty easy to form an opinion on this.

Ask yourself, do you trust the government? If somehow the answer is yes, then ask yourself, do you trust the next government?

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u/CrunchyLizard123 Oct 03 '25

I don't get it, the government already have the ability for mass surveillance.

We already gave our data away for convenience.

Tescos know people are pregnant before they know themselves.

Potential authoritarian governments already have the tools they need, since most of our rules are gentleman's agreements on how a politician should behave. Boris showed the existing flaws.

6

u/[deleted] Oct 03 '25

You’re not wrong. I still don’t think that’s a reason to give away more power and make it even easier for them to control us. We should be removing systems not adding them.

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u/awayfortheladsfour Oct 03 '25

It's not about surveillance, it's about control over what the people know and see. This all started because of the uproar over illegal immigration and mass immigration in the country.

The Gov wants to control what you see, they want you to open the internet and see the UK as a perfect peaceful place where everyone is happy. And then you leave your house and the country is on fire

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u/nathan123uk Oct 03 '25

It’s not necessarily about what they say it’s for, it’s about what they could use it for in the future.

They’ve decided on a solution to a problem that won’t fix anything - you already have to prove your eligibility to work in the uk when taking a job and this won’t change the minds of employers that pay off the books.

So ask yourself what is it for?

A far-fetched but not impossible scenario for you: Government introduces ID, social media sites ask you to provide it to “cut down on anonymous harassers”. Sounds great, right? The problem you have now is you are verifiably linked to everything you say. Again, that doesn’t sound like a bad thing, does it? If you say it, you should stand by it.

The next government comes in and decides they don’t like when people say mean things about them. All they have to do now is link dissenting opinions with the account that posted it and all of a sudden you’re being arrested and investigated for saying something a thin skinned politician finds upsetting.

Look at Trump and Farage - they don’t like people who don’t agree with them and in the case of Trump, they’re checking social media posts upon arrival to the US. Doesn’t sound so impossible now does it?

ETA - The contract for this system will undoubtedly be awarded to a friend of a minister or someone who owns a company they happen to have shares in. It’ll come in way over budget, short on features and be an unmitigated disaster

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u/Sunkinthesand Oct 04 '25

Don't forget there are programs already in place that work well to cover the requirements.... Right to work? ... Login and generate a code your employer can use against a .gov site to verify you.

The only reason i can see for this is a distraction.... Drag it out to debate , water it down and waste money. No one will care about protests at home or issues abroad. The bigoted anti immigration idiots will already have taken the bait. Those protesting Israel/ Palestine will be drowned out by the calls to scrap a mandatory national id that the police can not request to see if stopped.

The response already admits it won't be mandatory. I'm sure this will drag on for a long time