[antimagic]

U'll join in with the chorus and point out that this point of view is an outdated relic of the national identity card debates of the 80s and 90s. Back then it was possible to imagine a world where we weren't tracked permanently. With the advent of ubiquitous mobile phones, the Web (with cookies!), public transport electronic passes, license plate readers for cars, face recognition linked with CCTV networks, that era has gone. In my opinion, if we can't have privacy, then we should at least get some of the potential benefits that are possible when privacy is removed, and national ID cards give you just that.