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Posted on 09/28/2025 6:53:24 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Michael Shellenberger
@shellenberger ·
We need digital IDs to halt migration, increase efficiency, & safeguard data, they say. But border control does not require digital IDs and centralizing data is a hacker's dream. The real reason they want digital ID is for billions in fees and the control of our behavior.
Michael Shellenberger
@shellenberger
Everybody needs a digital ID, say heads of state and high-tech leaders. They give many reasons: it will stop illegal migration; it will increase efficiency; it will protect privacy; and it will prevent online fraud and data ransoming.
But we don’t need digital IDs for any of those things. The US just stopped illegal migration without digital IDs. Our online activities are more efficient than ever and it’s hard to see how they could get more efficient without sacrificing privacy and safety.
And centralizing data through digital IDs, which could link social media, vaccine, and banking information, in ways that allow government control, would undermine cybersecurity because having separate log-ins for our financial, health, shopping, banking, credit card, and other data makes sure that if one is hacked they aren’t all hacked.
“All your information in one place is a hacker’s dream,” said an Oxford University IT expert. “We already have countless ways we can provide our identity – passports, driving licences, and so on.”
Many Americans likely think that digital IDs are only something people in Britain have to worry about. Prime Minister Keir Starmer last week declared that every working person there must have digital ID, or “BritCard”. The U.S. should never allow such a thing. A digital ID that linked our social media, vaccine records, and bank accounts could allow governments to censor and control the population, violating our free speech and privacy rights.
Those Americans should think again. We are rapidly moving to the exact same digital ID surveillance and control system as the British. Real IDs contain embedded microchips that bring us one step closer to digital IDs. State governors are pushing it. Gavin Newsom last year allowed drivers licenses onto Apple and Google wallets. This “mobile drivers license,” or mDL, is a digital ID, and one more link in the chain.
And it is Americans, including Bill Gates and the controlling owner of Oracle, Larry Ellison, who are financing the digital ID push. “ The NHS [National Health Service] in the UK has an incredible amount of population data, but it’s fragmented,” he told Blair in February of this year. “It’s not easily accessible by these AI models. We have to take all of this data we have in our country and move it into a single, if you will, unified data platform… The secret is to get all of that data in one place.”
In September, Ellison made clear that he viewed the power of data centralization in behavior change. “Citizens will be on their best behavior because we’re constantly watching and recording everything that’s going on.”
Ellison’s Oracle is an AI database cloud computing company and he is its best salesman. Ellison, the second richest man in the world, and owner of CBS and CNN, has “donated or pledged at least £257m to the Tony Blair Institute,” reportedthe New Statesman last week. “Ellison donations have helped it grow to more than 900 staff, working in at least 45 countries.”
The nightmare scenario for mass, constant spying on citizens is not theoretical. China in 2019 created a social credit system with rewards that include better employment, school admissions, and shorter wait times in hospitals, and punishments including denial of access to public services and social events, denial of train and air tickets, and public shaming.
One study found that at least one-third of total “offenses” were not actually against the law and thus expanded “local government authority into moral and social domains beyond the law,” found researchers.
UK’s Big Brother Watched recently warned that a digital ID system, even if initially limited, could be a gateway to more invasive government surveillance and intrusion.
Why would any liberal and democratic Western government like Britain want such a thing?
Money is no doubt a big part of it. Oracle and other high tech companies stand to make billions taking bits of our money here and there for every transaction. Governments like Keir Starmer’s also seem eager to give them billions in contracts to monitor and analyze the population.
We found no evidence Starmer would personally benefit financially from digital IDs, however, and as a political leader, he must consider whether his actions are popular, and digital IDs are not. A YouGov poll released yesterday found UK opinion toward digital IDs was 42 percent in favor and 45 percent against. And given the negative reaction to them online, popular opposition will likely rise.
Tony Blair Institute’s (TBI) polling may have misled Starmer. TBI’s first question primed people to think about how inconvenienced they’ve felt without a digital ID, a blatantly manipulative form of polling.
No honest pollster seeking to give a client a realistic understanding of how the public thought about digital IDs would have started with that question, because they know the importance of framing.
The second question was equally biased. “Some are suggesting the government should introduce a new app, allowing instant access to a range of public services.” The framing suggests awareness on the part of the pollster that the public had a negative view of “digital ID,” hence the use of the “app” euphemism.
The third question was “Do you think there is digital technology that could help tackle these issues... Processing asylum seekers and managing the UK’s borders.”
One reason to think Starmer relied on the TBI’s biased polling is that Starmer pitched the digital ID as necessary to stop mass migration. “I know working people are worried about the level of illegal migration into this country,” said Starmer. “Digital ID… will make it tougher to work illegally in this country, making our borders more secure.”
The notion is absurd. Nations have maintained borders for hundreds of years without the need for digital IDs.
Given how badly the Starmer government’s digital ID roll out appears to have backfired, why did Starmer and Blair push it?
One possibility is that they really believe in the mission of improving people’s lives. That is already how they justify it. Said Starmer, “it will also offer ordinary citizens countless benefits, like being able to prove your identity to access key services swiftly - rather than hunting around for an old utility bill.”
But it is hard to believe Starmer and Blair really viewed the difficulty of finding where you left your utility bill as a high-priority social problem.
It appears more likely that they are hiding their reasons and that the real motivation is the same as the Chinese government: to control the population.
Gates last year released a Netflix documentary calling for sweeping AI-powered censorship of people he disagrees with on vaccines and other issues.
The Starmer government’s digital IDs should be a wake-up call to all of us. For years, various people have been raising concerns about digital IDs but free speech and privacy advocates have clearly not done enough to stop them. That needs to change.
The good news is that the backlash to the digital IDs appears strong and growing. And anyone can see that, when they spoke, Blair was taking instructions from Ellison. “You can pipe this data from these three thousand separate data sources into a single unified database,” said Ellison, “and that’s what we need to do.”
The episode should wake us Americans up to the continuing threat of total surveillance and censorship. Powerful American high-tech elites see dollar signs in controlling our data — and our behavior.
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Google helped China develop their surveillance state “Social Credit System” and look where that led.
Funny, they never mentioned voter ID.
Just like China. The government wants the ability to force people to spend their money by charging negative interest rates, so you don’t develop any savings and remain independent of the government.
Negative interest rates are also a sign of an economy near its end.
I'm sure the UK police are hunting down whoever made this graphic.
“Funny, they never mentioned voter ID.”
Good point!
The big push for Ai is to make it easier for the gov to spy on everyone and big tech to get some big fat welfare check. I don’t see any politician doing anything about it since they would rather waste our time on nonsense
Meh, people used to say a social security number was the mark of the beast. It wasn’t. Neither is digital ID. Can it be abused? Sure! Social security card clearly states “not to be used for identification”. How many times are we asked for “the last four digits”? How many people have had their identity “stolen” when that number was associated with a name and fraud or theft occurred? I support a more secure form of ID with limitations. This from one who remembers having to show a driver’s license to write a check at the grocery store. None of this is the mark. You’ll know when it happens.
HOW MANY HOMELESS ARE THERE????????
CANNOT COUNT HOW MANY STORIES I HAVE HEARD IN PAST 15 OR SO YEARS:
XXX HAS BROKEN DOWN IN THE FACTORY-—SEND A MECHANIC TO FIX-—
RESPONSE: “GEORGE USED TO DO ALL THOSE REPAIRS, BUT HE RETIRED & NO ONE WAS HIRED TO REPLACE HIM-—
OR THE PLANT MANAGER’S NEPHEW WAS THE REPLACEMENT AND HE ONLY KNOWS HOW TO PLAY VIDEO GAMES.....”
THE PEOPLE WHO KNOW HOW TO ACTUALLY FIX THINGS ARE SLOWLY RETIRING——AND THERE ARE NO REPLACEMENTS.
THERE ARE TOO MANY THINGS THAT WILL NEVER BE REPLACED WITH ELECTRONICS OR AI.
CANNOT COUNT HOW MANY STORIES I HAVE HEARD IN PAST 15 OR SO YEARS:
XXX HAS BROKEN DOWN IN THE FACTORY-—SEND A MECHANIC TO FIX-—
RESPONSE: “GEORGE USED TO DO ALL THOSE REPAIRS, BUT HE RETIRED & NO ONE WAS HIRED TO REPLACE HIM-—
OR THE PLANT MANAGER’S NEPHEW WAS THE REPLACEMENT AND HE ONLY KNOWS HOW TO PLAY VIDEO GAMES.....”
THE PEOPLE WHO KNOW HOW TO ACTUALLY FIX THINGS ARE SLOWLY RETIRING——AND THERE ARE NO REPLACEMENTS.
THERE ARE TOO MANY THINGS THAT WILL NEVER BE REPLACED WITH ELECTRONICS OR AI.
THE GUYS AT GRAINGER MIGHT KNOW WHAT PARTS ARE NEEDED-—_BUT NO ONE KNOWS HOW TO “FIX THINGS”.
The Secretary of the Treasury shall set up an ICE Bank System.
All persons and entities who engage in any type of physical real property activity must use the ICE Bank System to take payment:
1. after September 30, 2025, for such activity in Florida counties on the Gulf of Mexico having at least 50,000 people according to the US census,
2. after October 31, 2025, for such activity in the District of Columbia and Florida counties on the Atlantic Ocean,
3. after November 30, 2025, for such activity in Dallas County, Texas, Tarrant County, Texas and Harris County, Texas and adjacent counties,
4. after December 31, 2025, for such activity in Fulton County, Georgia and adjacent counties,
5. after January 31, 2026, for such activity in Bexar County, Texas, Travis County, Texas and adjacent counties,
6. after February 28, 2026, for such activity in Fairfax County, Virginia, Henrico County, Virginia and adjacent counties,
7. after March 31, 2026, for such activity in all political subdivisions in which the ICE Bank has set up an office at least two whole months previously.
Such physical real property activity shall be deemed to include building facility cleaning under contract and all building construction, building repair, building painting, landscaping, landscape maintenance, fencing and mowing.
Failure to do so shall be considered a felony and void the right to receive or retain payment or corresponding amounts and all such payments and amounts shall be subject to confiscation as the Secretary of Homeland Security may specify.
Violators shall be subject to a fine reflecting the lack of compliance and a term of imprisonment of 12 months for willful violation, or any lesser term the Secretary of Homeland Security may specify.
Property owners who conspire to subvert this law may be fined up to three times the apparent extent of the conspiracy.
Employees who do such work as a minor part of their workplace efforts such a waiter or retail store employee cleaning up or a cowboy mending a cattle fence shall be exempt and may be paid via other means for their work as such an employee.
The ICE shall have the power to void liens it reasonably deems contrary to the underlying intent of this law. Failure to cooperate in such lien voiding shall be a felony and punishable by a term of imprisonment of 12 months.
When I go to vote here in Florida, my ID gets verified by electronic means.
Passport? Yes!
State ID card? Yes!
Bump up the months by three - time flies.
The beast is coming.
Yes, you can see how badly the left wants Digital ID and surveillance.
“it is ... Bill Gates and ... Larry Ellison, who are financing the digital ID push.”
Even more reason to oppose it.
Bill Gates wants to track your VAX status and take away your ability to function if you are not up to date on every mandate.
“each subject’s EHR contained vaccine administration data from HFHS and the state immunization registry, ensuring full capture of vaccinations. In Michigan, all providers are required to report vaccinations to the state registry within 72hours of administration. This study, to our knowledge, includes the largest cohort of children completely unexposed to vaccination with observation in some subjects up to 18 years.”
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26089210-henry-ford-vaccinated-unvaccinated-study/
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