The Labour government in the United Kingdom is moving ahead with a sweeping plan to require every working citizen to carry a digital ID card — the “BritCard.” Prime Minister Keir Starmer pitched the initiative as a solution to illegal immigration and bureaucratic inefficiency, but critics argue it is nothing less than the foundation for a national government surveillance system.
A digital ID is a government-linked identity system designed to consolidate personal information, from banking and shopping data to health and vaccination records, into one centralized account. Unlike a physical driver’s license or passport that you keep in your wallet and control yourself, a digital ID exists online – stored in databases or apps that can be monitored, updated, or restricted by outside authorities like a national government.
Proponents say digital ID is more convenient and will reduce fraud, streamline access to public services, and modernize border enforcement. But critics warn it gives governments and corporations unprecedented power to track your movements, purchases, and even beliefs under the guise of “security” and “efficiency.”
In a recent post on X, independent journalist Michael Shellenberger laid out the alarming implications of digital ID for personal privacy – and why Britain’s move toward digital ID is likely a test run for rolling out the same policy the United States.
As he revealed, former Prime Minister Tony Blair has lobbied heavily for digital ID through the Tony Blair Institute, a shadowy nonprofit he controls. That effort has been backed by hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from Oracle founder Larry Ellison. Billionaire Bill Gates has likewise promoted centralized data systems as essential for public health and governance.
But what may seem like a European experiment is already creeping into the United States.
The Real ID Act, passed after 9/11, embeds microchips in driver’s licenses. Mobile driver’s licenses, introduced in states like California, allow Apple and Google wallets to store state IDs — a direct step toward a universal digital ID. Provisions buried in the Biden administration’s pandemic treaty negotiations with the World Health Organization also point toward the same model of a centralized, government-linked ID that could combine health records, financial data, and online activity under one account that the government has direct access to.
Far from protecting privacy, centralization makes citizens more vulnerable. Unlike today’s decentralized system, where a stolen credit card number does not expose medical records or social media accounts, a universal digital ID could function as a master key to unlock every corner of a person’s life. One breach would mean total compromise.
Civil liberties advocates also point out that once such a system exists, the temptation for governments to use it for censorship and social control will be overwhelming. A digital ID linking online accounts, banking, and healthcare would allow authorities to deny access to services, lock individuals out of financial transactions, or silence dissenters with the push of a button.
If Britain’s Labour government expected voters to embrace the BritCard, early signs suggest otherwise. A recent YouGov poll found Britons split on digital IDs, with 45 percent opposed and just 42 percent in favor.
Even the polling used to justify Starmer’s plan has come under fire. Surveys commissioned by the Tony Blair Institute framed digital IDs as convenient “apps” and clearly primed respondents by asking how often they felt inconvenienced without one.
Among those who stand to gain from digital IDs are corporations like Ellison’s Oracle, set to collect billions in contracts and transaction fees. From this perspective, digital ID looks less like public service and more like a collusion scheme where Big Tech gets even richer and the government gets even more control over the lives of everyday people.
Across the European Union, similar digital ID pilot programs are being pitched as solutions to border control problems and government efficiency, and biometric surveillance is becoming routine. Beginning October 12, the EU will roll out a new Entry/Exit System requiring travelers, including Americans, to provide fingerprints and facial scans upon arrival in 29 countries.
Officials say the policy will modernize border checks and curb overstays, but in practice it normalizes the collection and storage of sensitive personal data. What begins as a measure to track visitors’ movements can just as easily evolve into a broader system of digital monitoring.
For those still on the fence about digital ID, just consider that European governments are essentially copying the model pioneered by Communist China. In July, Beijing enacted a sweeping “Internet ID” law permitting citizens to register through a government app with names and facial scans. Each user is then issued a unique code that links to every online account.
The system is officially voluntary, but Chinese authorities are already pressuring e-commerce platforms, banks, and social media companies to integrate Internet ID, making it functionally mandatory.
Paired with China’s social credit system, the new ID could enable the state to reward “good behavior” with easier travel or school access, while penalizing those deemed “untrustworthy” by restricting loans, public employment, or train and flight access. In many local implementations, “untrustworthy” behavior includes administrative or civil infractions rather than criminal acts, giving officials broad latitude over who qualifies as “honest” or “faithful.”
Europe is marching toward China’s system of control, and the U.S. is not far behind. Digital IDs may be marketed as efficient and secure, but they are the framework for an anti-liberty surveillance state.
Sarah Katherine Sisk is a proud Hillsdale College alumna and a master’s student in economics at George Mason University. You can follow her on X @SKSisk76.
Overall. digital is dangerous. With the introduction of AI, information will be subject to more compromise and ID theft. Governments will be able to control their populace, taking away all privacy and freedoms. This laying down the groundwork for the control by the Adversary during the period of the Great Tribulation as stated in the Bible. We are definitely in the beginnings if the End Times.
This news arrival is straight out of the Bible book of Revelation. Next thing they will want is to put a chip in our hand to keep track of us.
No way would I ever support this ID system. It gives too much power to the government and we are now witnessing how much a government wants to take over our lives by the once-Democrat party. If they will phone tap 6 of our Congress people which is totally illegal, just think what they would do with a data base of all citizens! Just say NO!!
Digital ID is one step closer to total control of us all. If you’re not scared, you’re not paying close enough attention.
the mark of the beast!
Being modeled after communist china should tell you all you need to know.
666 in the Bible. Apocalypse talks about how you will have to get a mark and if you don’t get it you can’t buy or sell anything.
We need an Article V Convention of States NOW! We need to add the Right to Privacy, and restrict the government from access to our financial, purchasing, healthcare, phone, internet, and banking data. At the same time we need to restrict government from hiding secrets for more than 10 years, we need term limits for all our politicians (one and done), and we need to clarify that there are only two genders, that foreigners can’t own land in the U.S., that all trade and exhange with China needs to cease, and that communism, and sharia law are not compatible with the U.S. Constitution, and while we cannot keep anyone from engaging in them we can make sure they won’t do it on our soil. International treaties that infringe and restrict our rights as citizens of the United States should be treated as an attack on our country and the proponents should face investigation and possible indictment under the treason act. We have turned a blind eye for way too long to the efforts of the left to undermine our Constitution and laws to create a gulag and turn our country into another carbon copy of China, or the former Soviet Union. This is America, if you don’t love it, leave it; plenty of dictatorships for them to choose from; boats, trains, planes, buses, cars, even space travel leaving every day or other day.
I say a hard NO to digital ID’s
Digital ID =666 for coming economy ahead
Digital ID govt can track U 24/7
NOPE! Making way for AntiChrist, mark of the beast.
Digital ID is total control over every human being by government, business, banking and health industry. Now the progressives don’t want any ID in order to vote. Because they want Digital ID instead. In England they already have instituted 2 flights a year per person. With a digital ID they can monitor that. What will be next mandatory travel restrictions on the ground? The control they could create with this is never ending. It has nothing to do with illegals. They haven’t cared about them for decades. They let them in en masse. President Trump is deporting them because they broke the law. And the progressives are fighting that tooth and nail. Like with everything now these illegals will not have a digital ID. They have SS numbers now. They have cell phones now, they have guns now. They won’t have a digital ID. Tony Blair is a puppet of the WEF like Obama. He is destroying Britain by starting this Digital ID. Britain is the test country for the rest of the world. They already have censorship on social media. This makes it even easier to monitor your movements, thoughts and come up with policies for even more control. We have known for years this was coming. Klaus Schwab said it 10 years ago by 2030 you will own nothing but you will be happy. They are ordering you to be happy. It is the Nazi tattoo ID they gave the concentration camps victims. Just has a fancier name. I hope with all my heart President Trump and the GOP senators and members of the House will fight this to the death. We are one step away from global control of the masses. You have done or said something wrong and they will punish you by cutting off travel or access to money. It’s that way in China already. They, whoever they are, will decide for you. It is censorship of every human being. I can’t say it strongly enough but free speech, free thought, free decisions, free opinions or ideas, religion will be nipped in the bud by them. Whoever them are. This is more dangerous than the Nazi regime, Mao and Pol Pot and Idi Amin and any other evil dictator through the ages combined.
Digital Id’s can be lost or stolen. Wouldn’t it be better if every citizen had a bar code or maybe a QR code, tattooed on their left arm?
Just remember how well it worked out for the Jewish population of Germany in the 1930s and 1940s.
Maybe I missed it … but I didn’t see any mention of ‘Digital ID’ being hacked. The government controlling your data, employment, health records, etc … is a cause for concern, but what about the hackers? It appears everything digital is being hacked at some point, banks, wellness platforms, even a beer company in Japan … and when discussing a digital ID, and the problems of actual security, no one mentions the issues if hacked?
Right out of the book “1984” if you have never read it or Animal Farm, you might want to. Scary times for sure….
It is always about control. Controlling the people.
Big brother is coming.
It’s not the mark of the beast, but we’re approaching it quickly.
We don’t require more digital tracking. As others have stated, this will be dangerous.
Won’t work in the United States! The Dummingcrats would fight the Id’s because that would mean proving your citizenship, you would be required to have it at all times, except they would put in a clause not needed for voting. The irony. I thought the real id’s were supposed to take care of this?
I give a Hard NO to digital ID!!!
Another Democratic scam
I am totally against any further invasive steps by big tech to compromise our privacy.
We already have username and passwords dominating every aspect of our lives. I’d like to tell the government to keep their nosey eyes out of my life!
Show me your papers, Comrade!
No thanks. We got rids of the Brits for reason. That is a land of the free and the brave with a Constitution that rules the land and gives citizens rights over government control. Digital ID is just another scam by those that wish to control the American citizenry. Keep the red coat and communist out of America
Beth Fine
The strides of China, Great Britain, Europe, and eventually the U.S. to develop an electronic ID is not a new idea. Bible-reading Christians have become very aware of this eventuality from an imminent Revelation prophecy. Previous generations (not exposed to the emerging ability/scope/access of Internet/AI/corporations/government into our private lives), could scarcely imagine the eye/hand/facial recognition technologies of today. Yet now the Bible brings us up-to-date about the plans of a future, global “man of lawlessness” who will use his own version of such a technology to rule all mankind’s daily lives. “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (Revelation 13:16-17). Anyone reading and believing the Book of Revelation receives a blessing of understanding to reject this “mark” and to pass that truth onto the lost/prideful/uniformed folks also to reject this mark or have no excuse before
the Lord when He returns.
If people really worry about the privacy, perhaps they should start ditching the digital phones .and all the debit cards they use for even 1.95 purchase. Not happening, addiction is stronger than will.
The Founding Fathers deliberately spread power out between several groups because they knew that sinful people are tempted to accrue power to themselves. Giving the central government a way to interfere in all spheres of our life is a setup for disaster!
We have to demand that Digital ID must not be allowed to be implemented in this country. Additionally, our government must make it clear to other nations that US citizens will not be subjected to such potentially harmful technologies for any reason. I know Larry Ellison is working with this current administration on various initiatives, so he has quite a bit of influence on how things develop, but we have to make it clear to our elected officials that we as citizens do not want Digital ID and don’t want to be subjected to it anywhere. We get a US passport and that should be good enough for travel to any place on earth.
This is what happens when you walk around with your brain in your back pocket. People can’t let go of their cell phones. What do you think it is a tracking device gathering information about you. The world was just fine before them.
The end game. The robots will eventually have no need for humanity, and then, the game is over. It will take time, but suspect you can bank on it.
Once the digital ID is established, it will be linked to everything. If you do something the government does not like, you can have your ability to travel restricted, your bank accounts frozen, healthcare shut off, grocery shopping restricted, etc.
This truly does feel like the mark of the beast.
OK, that’s all fine and dandy, and TRUE but WTF do we DO about it??? How about some solutions on how to strangle it in its cradle instead of saying “It’s coming here.”?!?!??
Just another reason to keep your guns.
Look they’ve already got all our info.. years ago. It’s the darn hackers that worry us. It’s already a royal pain when your cc or tax account is hacked but this would need a separate security dept to help those who do get their info breached. And we will unless a solid recovery plan is put in place. Just my 2cents.
I read about the digital ID in another article but they didn’t go into details like this one. It sounded good to me at the time and I posted a comment that it’s no different than a digital drivers license. Boy did I get a lot of mean and negative comments. No one took the time to tell me why I was wrong. So thank you for going into more details in your column.
Is thIs any different from making the Jewish people wear a star? Seems the only difference is the technology. No to this!
Of course, members of Bible verse-by-verse congregations have been alerted to ID phenomenon. “” never understood in earlier generations until AI and Internet access became universally and daily for most of the world’s citizesns
The strides of China, Great Britain, Europe, and eventually the U.S. to develop an electronic ID is not a new idea. Bible-reading Christians have become very aware of this eventuality from an imminent Revelation prophecy. Previous generations (not exposed to the emerging ability/scope/access of Internet/AI/corporations/government into our private lives), could scarcely imagine the eye/hand/facial recognition technologies of today. Yet now the Bible brings us up-to-date about the plans of a future, global “man of lawlessness” who will use his own version of such a technology to rule all mankind’s daily lives. “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (Revelation 13:16-17). Anyone reading and believing the Book of Revelation receives a blessing of understanding to reject this “mark” and to pass that truth onto the lost/prideful/uniformed folks also to reject this mark or have no excuse before the Lord when He returns.
It will be like it was over the MRNA shots. Some people will buy in and be offended at those who absolutely refuse to be deceived. No one should have another persons personal information without their permission, for any reason. That especially applies to government, and international agencies.
The optimal goal is for ‘Big Brother’ (government) to know absolutely EVERYTHING about you. ALL PERSONAL INFORMATION, who you call, how often, what you talk about, where you went and how you got there, Etc., Etc., Etc., Etc……….. They’ll even know when you wiz, crap, sleep, get a cold, if you’ve been vax-jabbed, how many boosters……………
POWER, CONTROL, MONEY AND 24/7/365 SURVEILLANCE ON YOU, FAMILY, FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES. Where you live, number of vehicles and guns you own, types and quantity of ammo you have, etc.
DIGITAL ID MUST BE REJECTED. FAR TOO RISKY.
You already have a digital ID. It’s called “your cell phone”. If you carry one you are under constant surveillance. Remember how easily the FBI tracked down the J6ers?
We don’t need to make it easier. Any business, insurance or financial company has access to most everything about us now. Already it’s scary what is available to them, not counting the govt.
It is the socialist method of control.
A better use for Digital ID is to have all politicians required to have one, and have the citizens monitor them to keep track of all their activities.
Welcome to George Orwell’s 1984.
You would be surprised, if not shocked by how much of your information is already in some centralized data banks. NOTHING is secure in today’s electronic world, for one thing, that’s why you have to keep changing your passwords with longer and longer passwords. Look at the massive hacks that keep occurring in major systems that have advanced security features, even in government facilities.
I feel this would lead to the biblical Mark of the Beast. If this comes to America, Im not taking it no matter what officials say
The mark of the beast. No thanks, I’ll pass.
Digital is a FANTASTIC idea. It would make everyone accountable and honest. If there is any wrongdoing, the culprit could be disciplined or punished to the full extent of the law. Oh, I forgot to mention it will be mandatory and only apply to politicians, citizens would not have to comply.