Mandatory digital ID: "Such an awful idea"

British civil liberties defence organisation Big Brother Watch describes its missions as "to roll back the surveillance state and protect the rights of everyone in the UK to be free from unfair intrusion". Wherever you live, you're probably aware of or share concerns over the encroachment of state, and it's a hot topic in the UK as Prime Minister Keir Starmer attempts to ram through a mandatory digital ID system. This 4'50" footage gathers top representatives from groups opposed to the move, explaining their concerns and those of the general population they stand for in this delivery of protest to Starmer at No 10 Downing Street. A chief concern is the extensive data-sharing enabled by Big Tech platforms which reach far beyond national borders and individual privacy rights. Such data could be used to monitor and curtail the most basic freedoms, warn critics. And though Britain is centre stage at the moment, it goes beyond any single country: as one viewer points out, such a system as the PM envisages "gives more than just excessive powers to the State over the citizens, it gives big tech powers over the State".

Keywords: Big Brother Watch digital ID 2025, civil liberties UK, Britain privacy, linked databases, Liberty, Green Party, Big Tech, state surveillance, data sharing, digital privacy