Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The Government will later this month announce details of a controversial national identity scheme which will allow people to use their mobile phones and social media profiles as official identification documents for accessing public services.
People wishing to apply for services ranging from tax credits to passports will be asked to choose from a list of familiar online log-ins, including those they already use for social media sites, banks, and supermarkets, to prove their identity. Once they have logged in correctly, the site will send a message to the agency authenticating that user's identity.
The Cabinet Office is understood to have held discussions with the Post Office, banks, mobile phone companies and Facebook, Google, Microsoft, PayPal and BT.
Ministers are anxious the programme is not denounced as a "Big Brother" national ID card by the back door, which is why data will not be kept centrally by any government department. Indeed, it is hoped the Identity Assurance Programme will end any prospect of a physical national ID card being introduced in the UK.
The identification systems used by the private companies were subjected to security testing and awarded an "Identity Provider" kitemark, meaning that they have made the list of between five and 20 approved organisations that will be announced on 22 October.
The public will be able to use their log-ins from a set list of "trusted" private organisations to access Government services, which are being grouped together on a single website called Gov.uk.
The system will be trialled when the Department for Work and Pensions starts the roll-out of the Universal Credit scheme in April.
But privacy campaigners are not wholly convinced. "Although this is a fine scheme in principle and is backed by ministers, the danger is that it could be sidelined and used as a fig leaf by the data-hungry government departments," said Guy Herbert, general secretary of No2ID, which has been consulted by the Cabinet Office.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments