OK, so I have written debunking the soothsayers and conspiracy theorists about "digital identity enslavement", and I stand by my beliefs that the world is not flat, men did land on the moon, and there is no no worldwide cabal of sinister trillionaires trying to grab control of everything and everybody on the planet!!
But this morning I read an article on the Sky News website about fraud in the UK (here) that did just scare me a little......
I have previously raised concerns about the not-really-thought-out-yet mobile driving licence (mDL) announcement in the UK, to try and circumvent the British eccentricity regarding their aversion to eID. In essence an mDL is the nearest folks in the UK will be able to get to a 'trusted' method for identification using a mobile phone.
So what do I read today??
The UK Department of Work and Pensions is launching a crackdown on benefit fraudsters, with a new bill being introduced to parliament on Wednesday. Good, great, its needed as I read that over UK£8 billion is lost every year due to fraud! (do the math to make an estimate of the scale of this stupidly large number per head of population..)
According to the article (you may or may not choose to believe SKY News or the BBC)
"Once the bill is made law, benefit cheats could be banned from driving for up to two years if they refuse to pay back the money they owe.", "Courts could (also) suspend their driving licences following an application if they have debts of £1,000 or more and repayment requests are ignored."
So, if you add the two items together and all the so-called-plans succeed, the new bill will revoke a UK fraudster's primary means for identification for 2 years!!
First fraudsters, then those who are "anti-social"...and next "undesirables"?
I really am seeing the darkest in this? I think that I am imagining this as being more worse than it could be. The UK Government is really not that bright or joined up!
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