PM accused of ignoring civil rights and aping autocracies as he proposes new powers after far-right unrest

"Civil liberties campaigners have said that a proposal made by Keir Starmer on Thursday to expand the use of live facial recognition technology would amount to the effective introduction of a national ID card system based on people’s faces.

Silkie Carlo, the director of Big Brother Watch, said it was ironic the new prime minister was suggesting a greater use of facial matching on the same day that an EU-wide law largely banning real-time surveillance technology came into force…"

  • hydroptic@sopuli.xyz
    5·
    5 months ago

    How many of these people opposing a National ID already have a driving licence or passport?

    Yeah, my initial reaction was that it’s not like THE GOVERNMENT doesn’t already have your photo and relevant information if you have either one of those (well, assuming driving licenses are national in the UK which I take it they are?), but I of course understand that there could be other factors at play here that I’m not aware of

    • NateNate60@lemmy.world
      4·
      5 months ago

      I think that it’s not that people are scared of the Government having that information; it’s that they are afraid that a national ID scheme will make indexing, organising, and retrieving that information easier.

      • hydroptic@sopuli.xyz
        1·
        5 months ago

        Right, yeah, I guess that makes sense, although I guess that even if that were the case my question would be “so what?”, and I feel a bit doubtful that a national ID scheme would make it markedly easier than it already is at any rate, what with driving licenses etc.