The scary world of EU and UK digital passports beckons

Covid mandates expose the risks of EU digital passports under the guise of easy living

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2022

A Saturday Essay from your Editor

When technology makes life simpler we celebrate, but what if it makes controlling us simpler too?

EU plans for a digitized suite of identity documents, health records and financial aids are now well advanced. The EU’s consultants are using the lessons learned from the Covid passports that in many members states became mandated for key employees or a legal requirement to gain access to locations or events.

Originally conceived – and pitched to the public – as a way to make life easier for the smartphone generation, the EU started on this process in 2014:-

“The objective of Regulation (EU) 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council (the ‘eIDAS Regulation’) is to enable the cross-border recognition of government electronic identification (‘eIDs’) to access public services”

EU Commission, ‘Common Union Toolbox for a coordinated approach towards a European Digital Identity Framework’

This is happening in the EU – and the UK already has EU law on this

The EU Commission launched its latest digital passport initiative last June 3rd. Greeted with the typical fanfare of how easy it will be to move around the EU just flashing one’s mobile phone without a care in the world… to show your driving licence, your healthcare entitlement, your employment status, your finances and all other matter of personal details – FROM ONE APP – that holds it all… the programme is advancing and is expected to be launched in the next year.

…And that’s where the concept might have stayed in the minds of EU citizens; a device to make life free and easy, a device to break down boundaries and open doors, what could be better? Only that’s not exactly how it is likely to be seen by everyone now, thanks to the EU and some member state governments using the digitized Covid Passport as a means of control.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

What are the UK eIDAS Regulations?

The following comes from the UK's Information Commissioner's Office.

"The eIDAS Regulation is Regulation (EU) 910/2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market. Following the UK withdrawal from the EU the eIDAS Regulation was adopted into UK law and amended by The Electronic Identification and Trust Services for Electronic Transactions (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019). In addition, the existing UK trust services legislation, The Electronic Identification and Trust Services for Electronic Transactions Regulation 2016 (2016 No.696)) was also amended. Taken together, these regulations are referred to in this guidance as the UK eIDAS Regulations."
"Although the UK eIDAS supervisory body has no EU eIDAS regulatory obligations it continues to work closely with other EU supervisory authorities."

- Information Commissioner's Office, accessed Sat 19 Feb 2022

This is not about Covid

This is not an article about Covid vaccines, so please everyone, read on. This is about your own private and highly personal information – how it is managed, how it is curated, how it is stored. It is also about how making life easier in doing all those everyday tasks – such as confirming who you are, paying for something, gaining entry to somewhere – might also unleash the very means of penning you in, limiting your options, denying you a voice and making it easier for criminals – and the state – to know everything about you and/or sell it to someone without your knowledge.

You will have to ask yourself is this what you want? Can you trust people you do not know to look after such private information? And what does the evidence thus far suggest is the best outcome I can expect?

And… if it can happen in the EU does it have to happen in the United Kingdom now that we have taken back control?

Britain must debate digital ID before we are dictated to by a globalised world

Following the use of digitized Covid Passports and their extension into Covid Mandates that have cost people their jobs, their livelihoods and their freedoms, we can see there are risks associated with putting all one’s digital information together on one App. It can become a means to control what we say, what we write, where we go and whom we meet.

If you have any doubts about this, see how Justin Trudeau has introduced restrictions on Truckers’ bank accounts for daring to protest against his government’s Covid mandates.

And if you think we are not at this stage of linking everything together yet, as our bank accounts are separate from our health records, our travel passports and identity cards or healthcare access cards, just consider how it will soon be possible to combine this type of digitalized infrastructure with other changes that are happening such as the drive towards a cashless society with a likely digital retail currency replacing notes and coins. The opportunities for State control grows exponentially.

This is real, it’s not made up or a conspiracy

The image below is taken from the official EU Commission website.

This Saturday Essay is not an attempt to create a conspiracy out of good intentions, it is simply to say that these technical developments move quickly and they need to be discussed before they are adopted. What was noticeable is how – without any public debate whatsoever – Covid Vaccine Passports in digitized form were introduced as the preferred route to control how people moved about and gained access to various everyday behaviours. And then suddenly in countries like Austria not having such a passport could become a criminal offence with a huge fine or eventual imprisonment. And many people thought this was justifiable.

Putting various documents on one’s phone and allowing them to interact with sensors can arguably make sense as a means to gain access to or pay for various services, events and rights, but that is quite different from allowing all that data to be held – in effect SHARED – on ONE App that can then feed into a ‘central state nervous system’. It pulls everything about us together and everything is then known in a manner that is not yet known.

Do you trust the authorities?

Would you trust the EU to have access to that information and make decisions about what you can and cannot do on the basis of what they ‘know’ about you?
Would you trust the UK government to have access to that same information and make similar decisions about what you can and cannot do on the basis of what they ‘know’ about you?
Or your local council, or your local police force or your health controller, sorry, GP practice?
And if all this data about you is to be put together, does hacking into the digital vaults not mean it is easier to get ALL your private information rather than if your data is spread across separate and isolated silos that each would have to be hacked individually and then combined?
The EU is not about to provide a European Digital Identity number – yet. But do you trust it not to?
If you're not interested, that's ok. It's not compulsory to get the EU App – yet. But Covid passports became mandatory – what’s to stop the EU going down that road too? And what’s to stop our own Government copying the EU? Do we not need a debate so we can give or deny our approval?
The good news is that Switzerland has already had a referendum about adopting a digital ID card and this defined the law. It does not matter what the public decided, what matters is that the public was given a say. (As it happens, they voted against.)
You should also know the EU's eIDAS regulation came into force in 2018 and is thus in UK law. It needs to be repealed by the UK Government so we are free to do what WE want.

Issues to concern you

Obviously there is the issue of to what extent digital passports that can combine information from different sources of identity can lead to a Big Brother state – be it in Europe, the UK or globally? That must be a serious worry – especially without consent

The EU's digital ID is one of its means to achieve EU integration, with the EU extending its powers over taxation, health – everything – but as usual, by insidious stealthy means. Selling it as progress when it is centralisation and control for the powerful technocrats and corporate elites.

Finally, it is still in our UK law. What is our Government doing about it – what is its plans, will it repeal the EU law and start over again or leave it alone? We do not know but we must be told.

Observations

To conclude

The development of the EU’s digital passport sounds like a boon to easy living – but it could also be a straitjacket to personal freedom. We need to set the rules to limit what governments – be they local, national or multinational – can do.

If the Swiss can decide in a referendum that they are not going to have digital identity cards then should we not demand that right too?

We do not even have paper or plastic card identity cards in the UK – so why should we suddenly sign up for them in digital form without so much as giving our say-so?

The danger is that although the UK has left the EU (and in respect of passports, identity cards and privacy laws the UK has left the EU as one) that the EU goes down this route and the UK meekly decides to follow suit. That would not be good enough. We did not leave the EU to then simply sign up to any bad ideas it has.

On the subject of digital identity cards – or any identity cards for that matter – the British public MUST have its say.

Brian Monteith, Managing Editor

Burning the midnight oil to research these developments does not come cost free, however…

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[ Sources: EU official papers ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org,Saturday, 19 February, 2022

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Reader Comments 7

1. Catherine, Dollar , Saturday, February 19, 2022, 10:19:

Digital IDs such as this make it easier for more of our personal information to be shared, not for our benefit, but to benefit and suit organisations and governments. It was chilling to read in the tiny print of the covid vaccine app in Scotland that it would share that private data with a large number of companies. And if you look at the EU plans, the corporates are very much there too.

2. guvner , Saturday, February 19, 2022, 10:55:

None of you seemed too concerned when this government said that they now want IDs to vote - a solution looking for a problem. The conservatives in the US hinge their entire success on limiting votes, they've even admitted so. Making it harder to vote is the only way conservatives stay relevant.

3. Robert Mcdonald , Saturday, February 19, 2022, 12:11:

guvner .... there is indeed a problem, even if it is only a perceived problem. Democracy must be seen and proven to be above reproach .... and ID's are not a problem to produce .... if you justify having one. Of course lefties want to be able to avoid scrutiny, that's how they avoid facing the facts ... socialism has never and will never work as they always run out of other peoples money.

4. Carlo Guli , Saturday, February 19, 2022, 12:51:

Vote ID is the only necessary ID.
When we express our vote we must prove we have the right to do so.
This does not limit the right to vote, not does it make it any harder; all it does is prevent abuses.
The myth that "conservatives" try to limit vote rights using IDs is an absurd notion that doesn't stand to scrutiny.
That "they" admit to such an intent, even, is completely untrue.
The important detail here, of course, is that the use of voting ID must not be made to mean people in power ever get to know how we vote. This is not the case now, and it must never be allowed to happen.
Any other form of identification, especially when information is collected in such a way that can be cross linked, is totally unacceptable as it gives some people control over others, and it's the foundation of tyranny.
By the way the base principle of GDPR, which the EU seems to cherish so much, is precisely that information must be collected and stored in such a way that relevant pieces of personal information cannot be put together to make user identification possible.
It seems that EU autocrats believe such principles do not apply to their interfering with personal freedoms, which is hypocritical and it does undermine the whole idea.
What is left is just more burdersome rules and regulations, and sometimes just plain annoyances, as we do experience day by day any time we access any website.

5. MJK1953 , Saturday, February 19, 2022, 14:46:

Highly relevant - thanks. I think we should all be concerned about the direction of travel on this. Certainly wouldn’t trust the state who are seeking to effectively remove our human rights in their proposed Bill of Rights by being able to abrogate them in the name of the greater public good - an arbitrary concept. A human right is, by definition, absolute and therefore cannot be reconciled with an arbitrary concept. I think the framers of this bill are hoping people won’t notice the subtlety.

6. jon livesey , Saturday, February 19, 2022, 19:44:

I understand the concern here, but it's worth considering the two main models of running countries. One model, mostly the Anglo-Saxon one, is to make the borders the place where identity is checked and then have very few checks inside the country. The other, continental, model is to have pervasive checks throughout the country, making people register their address with the police, carry identification with them, have national identity cards besides passports, show their papers to petty officials, and so on.
It's a matter of choice for each society, but my preference is for Government to check me at the border, and then stay out of my life as much as possible when I am in the country. And to me, one of the big advantages of Brexit was to go back to this model and stay away from the European "papers, please!" model of daily life.
So I will happily accept a biometric passport, and then I will encourage the Government to go and look after its own business the rest of the time.

7. Adam , Saturday, February 19, 2022, 21:37:

If We had a codified written constitution and even become a Federal Republic We could control our politicians much better Covid19 is on its way out let protect our freedoms and rights make sure the Government can never infringe on our Way of life again without severe Consequences for themselves

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