[ljm]

The UK government has an unhealthy obsession with surveillance but ID cards are a strange target. They offer nothing except convenience, considering if you ever want to buy alcohol or travel abroad as a Brit, then you have to get a driving license and a passport.

The end result is that something as simple as proving who you are on a document, or renewing your driving license, requires that you provide every address you've lived at for 3 years and essentially get a credit check. Electoral roll data is sold to third parties and is used for junk mail as much as it is identity checking.

An ID card would put that entire business venture to an end, because your personal ID number and embedded certificates would be more than enough to prove you are who you say you are. This is comparatively a blessing on the continent, where many EU countries have updated their tech. Being a Brit living around Europe for some years, the hoops I have to jump through to prove who I am in the UK are an incredible annoyance and my letter box is already filling with unwanted solicitations. I'm probably being tracked _more_ than I was with my EU ID cards!

[icc97]

Life with an ID card is nice and easy. But you have no chance of anonymity.

Sure your data gets sold, but if you're careful and you care about it you can keep your anonymity. That's a precious thing that you can never have with ID cards because you're illegal in most of the rest of Europe if you don't have one.

[walshemj]

Yes give the police have more excuse to stop and ask for "papers please" guess which type of citizen will be asked for this.

[ljm]

The police don’t do that in the first place, it’s a paranoid myth that ignores the serious infringement on privacy in the UK.

Meanwhile those on an anonymity crusade have to show their phone provider legit ID (driving license, passport) to open up a porn blocker and provide every ID provider in the country evidence of where they’ve lived in 3 years in order to get anywhere. Meanwhile the police push for unfettered access to government databases.

The police aren’t stopping and searching because they need an ID card to ask for. They have plenty to go off already.