Risk to government from single universal identities

Richard Allan has pointed out a neglected facet of the identity card debate. Senior government officals with responsibility for sets of personal data about citizens have a legal duty to protect that data. The universal identity architecture severely compromises their ability to carry out that duty since the overall security of the system is very poor.

"One common identifier across all government systems means less work in the short term but is much riskier for those charged with guarding each dataset. Different identifiers that can still be linked with proper authority require a proper defined regime of access control and are therefore safer for both citizens and officials who hold data about citizens."