Failure to present a BritCard when required may result in denial of employment, housing, or access to certain services. Employers and landlords will be legally obligated to verify status through the system, and failure to do so may result in fines or penalties.
While enforcement details are still emerging, civil liberties groups warn that the scheme could disproportionately affect vulnerable populations. Those without smartphones, digital literacy, or stable housing may struggle to access or maintain their digital ID, potentially pushing them further into the margins of society.
Because the year is 2025 and we have this thing called “the internet” now, where the teeniest, tiniest little failure in implementation, could result in an entire database of PII leaked to the masses. It’s hard to leak a physical card.
Wait you want a physical card with no record of it? Like a deed from the 1800s or something? What?
The government already has plenty of databases with the PII of every person in the UK. This wouldn’t change that.
The difference is scope and ease of (inevitable) creep.
In isolation, this probably isn’t that big a change, as part of a trend though, this is the change that all of what is to come, hinges on.
This is a central point of identity that is now mandatory for a jobs and housing ( + a bunch of other stuff ).
Yes you need some things for a bank account and tax purposes, this isn’t different in type, it’s different in scope.
Now, given the propensity for “think of the children” wrapping for basically any privacy encroachment they can think up , they can tie it to this, because it’s digital it’s significantly easier to do that.
Previously they’d have had to think “how can we enforce this bullshit” and would have to factor in the cost of additional verification systems to support their bullshit.
Now they don’t.
You already need some kind of proof of identity to work and housing. This just designates one identifier as the one you have to use. Hardly different.
Yes, as i said, different in scope not type.
Well that just seems silly. You’re ok with an inconvenient ad-hoc collection of mandatory IDs, but not a unified one.
i’m not particularly enthused about either, but if you’ll read my original reply you can find out why i dislike the new one specifically.
hint it’s not really because of the id itself