Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers

One of my concerns with this is the assumption that every adult has a suitable smartphone. Do the government plan to hand them out?

A smartphone running software beholden to one of two American companies.

Do you see the flaw here!

A smartphone is going to be mandatory for employment!

From the linked page:

> In designing the digital ID scheme, the government will ensure that it works for those who aren’t able to use a smartphone, with inclusion at the heart of its design.

The technologically inept get QR codes tattooed on their foreheads.

It won't fit on my head next to my POOR IMPULSE CONTROL tattoo.

Please don't give them ideas!

I guess we'll have to wait for specifics. Unfortunately "it will have inclusion at its core" doesn't really say much.

They are considering enabling its use for more than just work, so what happens when my grandma forgets to charge her phone before her doctors' appointment?

What happens if you want to give teenagers a dumb phone because you as a parent decide a smartphone isn't appropriate, but they need the ID for the NHS too?

What of people like me who are able to use a smartphone but are unwilling to?

It's not just the elderly and homeless as mentioned on the page, but also those with religious objections, members of the digital disconnection movement, those concerned about electromagnetic hypersensitivity, and so on.

Should there a right to an offline life for the simple reason that you want live offline? A right which is protected in a few other places in Europe, at least to some extent when it concerns government services.

I guess the alternative will just be username and password entered into some online portal?