A new app to hold citizens’ driving licences, passports and benefits documents risks being used as a “launchpad for a mandatory ID scheme”, privacy campaigners have claimed.
Peter Kyle, the technology secretary, last week unveiled plans for a gov.uk app and gov.uk wallet, intended to save time and hassle for millions by allowing them to carry on their phones digital versions of paper documents.
These would include proofs of right to work in the UK, rights to benefits, veteran ID cards and DBS certificates, which employers use to check the criminal record of someone applying for a role. The technology will include biometric security such as face scans. Similar e-government apps are already in use in countries including Poland, Estonia and Iceland.
Kyle said the technology would be voluntary and paper documents would continue to be used, but added that he was striving to make the app’s convenience so “compelling” that people would consider its use “unavoidable”.
The app will include a digital document wallet similar to those already installed on Apple and Google smartphones and will be “totally reminiscent of the way you shop, the way you bank, the way you travel and this is now the way you interact with your government”, Kyle said.
But campaigners are now calling for greater transparency about the new systems’ privacy impact before they are rolled out later this year.
“Kyle will not be department of science, innovation and technology minister for ever, and a future government could easily use the optional digital wallet as the launch pad for a mandatory ID scheme,” said Silkie Carlo, the director of the Big Brother Watch campaign group.
“The addition of our facial recognition data makes this sprawling identity system incredibly sensitive, intrusive and a honeypot for hackers.”
James Baker, the campaigns manager at Open Rights Group, said: “Is there going to be pressure for the app to become the portal that you have to interact with the government through?
“Do you end up in a world where it’s meant to be voluntary but it becomes so widely accepted that you can’t live without it? One future problem is it ends up evolving into a national identity database where every interaction is tracked, which has considerable privacy implications.”
Kyle unveiled the technology this week in a presentation inspired by a Silicon Valley product launch. He told an audience the app would be available from June followed by the wallet to “securely save government issued digital documents” – starting with driving licences and veterans cards. The hope is that the app will become a key way citizens interact with many arms of the government from paying vehicle tax, to managing welfare benefits and interacting with the NHS.
Officials insist the app and wallet will be highly secure, using security features that are built into modern smartphones, including facial recognition checks similar to those used when people pay using a digital bank card. That would mean there would be no central database of the documents held on the wallet and any hackers would have to break into individual phones.
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A government spokesperson said: “By using the same technology that protects your digital bank card, a digital driving licence will be much harder to steal than the physical copy because even if a phone is stolen, the thief won’t be able to access the documents within.
“We have been clear that digital identity is not mandatory, and we will continue to make sure our new tools are as accessible as possible – including by maintaining call centres or face-to-face support for those who need help accessing digital services.”
Credentials lodged in the wallet should also be harder to fake than paper documents. There are also practical benefits from gathering so many key documents in one place and it could mean an end to lost or tattered documentation with renewals happening digitally rather than through lengthy paper-based applications.
It also has the potential to increase privacy in some areas. For example, citizens will not need to show their name and address when they are buying age-restricted products such as alcohol and fireworks, as they will be able to simply show the screen that proves their age.
The system will allow the government to revoke credentials in some circumstances, for example if they are out of date or otherwise invalid. However. citizens would still be able to use a paper copy, if that was done for mistaken reasons.
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