Privacy experts have slammed the UK government’s plans to create a digital identity wallet mobile app, describing it as “putting Big Brother in your pocket.”
The Gov.uk wallet and app is a means “to simplify access to services and documents,” reads the official announcement published on Wednesday, January 21, 2025. Citizens will be able to carry government-issued ID documents that their driving license or Passport, directly on their phones – similar to how many of us currently store our bank cards.
The plan echoes the EU’s digital identity wallet scheme, which passed last year despite criticism from privacy experts. In the UK, as in the EU, the concerns are the same – greater convenience should not come at the cost of increased surveillance and data security risks.
“Honeypot for Hackers”
With the Gov.uk wallet due to launch this summer, Britons will soon be able to digitally scan their ID documents into the app to make it easier to prove their age or identity as needed.
The ID wallet app also allows citizens to easily manage all their government activities and access government services in one place.
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(Image credit: Photo by Diego Puletto/Getty Images)
On December 4, 2024, the EU Digital Identity Wallet landed in Italy despite privacy concerns, with a local journalist deeming the IT wallet the “EU Digital Cage.” All Italians can now digitally scan their driver’s license and health card directly from the IO app if they wish to do so, as the service is voluntary at the time of writing.
Despite the benefits, Silkie Carlo, director of UK-based privacy advocate Group Big Brother Watch, is concerned about the huge amount of personal information that will go into the app.
“The government is putting big brother in its pocket with a new app to access all your identity documents and more,” she warns,
The government assures that “the technology will make use of security features built into modern smartphones, including facial recognition checks similar to those used when people pay using a digital bank card.”
However, Carlo is still concerned about the security risks of storing such sensitive identifier information within a single application. She said: “The addition of our facial recognition data makes this distributed identity system incredibly sensitive, intrusive and a honeypot for hackers.”
After all, the UK public system has a poor track record of keeping people’s data secure. In March last year, a ransomware gang hacked into NHS Dumfries and Galloway’s digital database and stole 3TB of identifying information belonging to both staff and patients.
As mentioned earlier, the Gov.uk wallet is set to launch in the summer of 2025 for both iOS and Android devices. The digital version of the veteran card will only be available with the mobile driving license later this year. All other ID documents and digital services are expected to be up and running in 2027.
According to UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander, this represents a “game changer” for all Britons who use their driving license as ID. “The innovation puts the power back in the hands of the people and makes everyday interaction faster, easier and safer,” she added.
This is not how Carlo from Big Brother Watch feels. While the UK government should modernize its ID system and give people digital options, she believes this approach risks achieving the opposite of what was intended – “actually narrowing our choices and control over our own data,” Carlo said.
All in all, Carlo believes this system will ultimately disadvantage all people who still rely on non-digital forms of ID. She said: “Despite our campaigning, the government inexplicably refuses to legally protect the right to use non-digital ID, and has not determined whether we can control how much of our sensitive information will be accessible through this wallet .”
