{"id":324573,"date":"2026-03-12T07:38:54","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T07:38:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=324573"},"modified":"2026-03-13T08:35:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T08:35:27","slug":"uk-govt-launches-digital-id-consultation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=324573","title":{"rendered":"UK Gov\u2019t launches Digital ID \u201cconsultation\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kit Knightly \u2013 Off Guardian March 11, 2026<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Yesterday, Keir Starmer\u2019s Government officially launched their \u201cconsultation\u201d on Digital ID.<\/p>\n

The language in the press release is hilariously partisan\u2026<\/p>\n

Government launches consultation on making public services quicker, easier and more secure to access with digital ID<\/p>\n

The government wants to know if you\u2019re in favour Digital ID making public services quicker easer and more secure? Or would you like them to stay slow, difficult and unsafe?<\/p>\n

For those unversed in vernacular of British politics, a \u201cConsultation\u201d occurs after the government has decided to do something, but before they\u2019ve actually done it. After the \u201cconsultation\u201d comes the \u201cpanel\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u2018People\u2019s Panel for Digital ID\u2019 \u2013 an in-depth deliberative engagement process with a broadly UK representative sample of 100-120 individuals to discuss the policy in detail.<\/p>\n

\u2026which is a 120-person focus group of totally real people selected at random. Honest.<\/p>\n

The supposed aim of this long and drawn-out process is to get vital feedback about the thing that\u2019s definitely going to happen, and therefore be able to best benefit the public when it happens.<\/p>\n

The real aim is an extended PR tour creating a fa\u00e7ade of conversation and compromise prior to the roll-out of the entirely unchanged plan.<\/p>\n

The technology is all built, the app designed, the services locked in. What they\u2019re waiting for is the brief process of normalisation to elapse so that not too many people complain.<\/p>\n

And complain we should, because a cursory reading of the full consultation is a little alarming.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a part about facial recognition technology, for example:<\/p>\n

\u2026there is a legal basis for police use of facial recognition, which may include access to biometric data held by government. The government recognises that the current legal framework is complicated, and has launched a consultation (which concluded in February 2026) on reviewing the legal framework for using facial recognition in law enforcement. That consultation proposes a new legal framework that will create consistent, durable rules and appropriate safeguards for facial recognition and similar technologies which are likely to follow it in relation to biometric data held by government in the future. The national digital ID will be subject to any new legal framework introduced.<\/p>\n

A word salad which roughly translates to:<\/p>\n

>strong>\u201cWe\u2019re going to put everyone with a digital ID into a police database for facial recognition technology.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

But the good news is that you don\u2019t have to pay to be put on a facial recognition database, the UK Digital ID will be free:<\/p>\n

We expect there to be no direct costs to households from the introduction of the digital ID system, as households will not be charged any fees to create, access or use their digital ID.<\/p>\n

How this will work with passports and drivers\u2019 licences \u2013 both of which you do have to pay to receive \u2013 will be interesting. But making one free and one expensive is a very efficient method of blurring the line between non-compulsory and mandatory.<\/p>\n

As the old saying goes, \u201cif you\u2019re not paying for the product, you ARE the product.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

So, how do you feel about this idea? Would you like to be part of the consultation?<\/p>\n

Because, if you want to leave some feedback\u2026there\u2019s a survey<\/a>. Have at it.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Support Off-Guardian:<\/p>\n

Ko-fi<\/a><\/p>\n

Subscribestar<\/a><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The technology is all built, the app designed, the services locked in. What they\u2019re waiting for is the brief process of normalisation to elapse so that not too many people complain. Kit Knightly explains<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":294401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-324573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Commentary","category-Surveillance"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=324573"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":324575,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324573\/revisions\/324575"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/294401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=324573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=324573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=324573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}