The UK government recently announced plans to impose digital ID on every resident, raising alarms among citizens across the Western world. Promoted as a crackdown on “illegal working” and a convenient tool to access “vital government services,” the mandatory ID would also be required to work, officials said, concentrating power in a way that would make the Party in 1984 blush.
Unlike a physical ID, a digital version records every use and provides the government with a record of every individual citizen’s daily activities. Once that kind of power is surrendered to the state, history shows it is rarely, if ever, returned.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office framed the nation’s digital ID initiative as an effort to combat illegal immigration and streamline access to services like driver’s licenses, childcare, and welfare. “Digital ID is an enormous opportunity for the UK. It will make it tougher to work illegally in this country, making our borders more secure. And it will also offer ordinary citizens countless benefits, like being able to prove your identity to access key services swiftly – rather than hunting around for an old utility bill,” Starmer said.
Starmer noted the mandatory digital ID will be “free of charge.” The prime minister is going to force UK citizens to hand over their privacy – for free! What a guy!
Physical IDs like passports, licenses, and Social Security cards verify specific rights or privileges, but they don’t have a centralized database. A digital ID does. Every swipe, scan, or login becomes another data point that can be used to evaluate and control citizens.
This isn’t a paranoid hypothetical. China’s infamous Social Credit System already shows where digital ID can lead. In China, reports say driving violations, smoking in restricted areas, posting so-called “fake news,” or even spending “irresponsibly” are recorded as punishable behaviors that drag down a citizen’s score. The consequences of a low social credit score reportedly include travel bans, throttled internet speeds, blacklisting from higher education, and even the forced confiscation of pets.
The UK isn’t alone in its push for digital ID. The European Union launched its own digital ID and personal digital wallet, marketed as a “safe, reliable, and private means of digital identification for everyone in Europe.” It “will simplify your life,” the EU insists.
Sweden, Estonia, and Denmark have each implemented their own digital ID systems featuring a variety of uses, including voting, paying bills, ordering prescriptions, banking, filing taxes, and booking vacations.
Digital ID seems relatively innocent until one considers this quote from President Gerald Ford: “A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.”
Imagine a future where access to work, healthcare, or travel can be cut off simply by flipping a digital switch. This slow normalization of digital ID is the frog in a boiling pot: Each step seems harmless until the system is fully established and resistance becomes nearly impossible.
The United States has also flirted with centralized identification through REAL ID and vaccine passports. Nearly half of US states – including Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Montana, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Puerto Rico, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia – have already implemented Mobile Driver’s Licenses, digitized versions of physical licenses. Referred to as mDLs by the Transportation Security Administration, the system could easily pave the way for federal expansion.
The American system of checks and balances was designed to restrain centralized power. Digital ID is the Trojan horse of our time. It arrives wrapped in promises of security and convenience, but inside lurks an invasive surveillance state. Let’s learn from the Trojans’ mistake and send the horse back to Greece.