Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers

The same thing is happening in Greece. The new mandatory digital ID replaces and unifies everything about citizens in one place, "to make it easier for government services to share information between each other". It can indeed be useful, but the privacy implications are enormous. Just imagine that a policeman, employer or anybody else with access to the information linked to the ID can instantly view our medical records, tax status and even simpler things like if we've ever been caught driving while drunk. Nobody knows what other information could be attached to it, but it's certain that it can be used to discriminate against us.

The worst part is that we no longer have any power to do something about it. Eventually, after it goes through the testing phase in the UK and Greece (and a few other countries where it's being implemented), this will probably roll out on a global scale, making privacy impossibly. I'm starting to get this feeling that in the next decade, we'll be living in 1984...

> Just imagine that a policeman, employer or anybody else with access to the information linked to the ID can instantly view our medical records, tax status and even simpler things like if we've ever been caught driving while drunk

Why would I imagine that? There are privacy implications, but a unique ID doesn't mean everyone has access to all your data at any time for any reason.

All it takes is one breach or vulnerability and then yes, they DO have access to all your data.

Imagine someone steals your driver's license. No biggie.

Now imagine they steal your identity which is linked to everything you ever do.

> All it takes is one breach or vulnerability and then yes, they DO have access to all your data.

No they don't. If they breach the health system, they don't have access to tax returns.

Just because people are identified by a single ID number doesn't mean all their data is being stored on the same server. And for purely organizational reasons, that's incredibly unlikely to happen.

And I don't know what you mean by "steal your identity". People's names are date of birth are generally a pretty unique identifier already. It doesn't really matter if systems use that or a single ID number to identify you, or if hackers look you up by your name.

When a credential is stolen, its validity across multiple unrelated services is often checked by credential stuffing. That's just one type of simple attack.

Has cybercrime been rendered obsolete with a government credential? Why is this master account immune to theft? On the contrary, it appears to be a credential that once stolen, could be more impactful than having your primary email account and phone compromised.

It's reasonable to be concerned even just from an infosec perspective.

What master account are you even talking about? That's not what this is.

The subject was a system being breached.

And the account you set up for a driver's license is generally different from the one for your health care. If you're reusing the same password for both it doesn't matter if they're linked by the same digital ID number or the same email address or just the same name and birthday.

A digital ID number isn't changing anything here.

In the UK's own post linked below (also in the OP), they describe what's more than a digital ID number. It's credentials. Which humans are bad at handling. And there are always implementation flaws, because we're humans.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-digital-id-scheme-to-...