This was done to Wikileaks fifteen years ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiLeaks#Financial_blockade
this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2025
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Yes, but it evolves!!!
If it is just ID but on the phone then it is a sensible idea with a couple of millions precautions to take care of. Case in point - Diia is fine if flawed realization of Digital ID and digital governance application. You just need to get through a dozen or so data leaks because we got our pentesting permanently outsourced to guys up east but aside from that - it is broadly fine.
But since we haven't actually been told what it will entail in the UK, we don't know.
Ideally it could be used in a privacy preserving manner, e.g. you can use it to prove you are 18 without revealing any other details.
It's being sold to us under the guise of "stopping illegal immigrants from being able to work", which I can tell you right now is not something any ID scheme will be good for because it's nearly all unregistered cash-in-hand jobs.
lack of transparency kills everything. especially when the government already has hostile reputation towards its citizens. which is weird because it is way easier to get reelected when you actually do something that makes life of your people easier and more self-sustainable. but that's probably a bit too much to ask.
I find this kind of sentiment a bit funny, because we already have much worse
Credit scores are opaque ratings of people kept by private organisations used to refuse business to people effectively based on their spending & borrowing behaviour, many of these will now happily encourage you to link your accounts so they get itemised data from some people now too.
This could literally be happening today and they would just need to say "sorry your credit isn't good enough". Credit score factors into your ability to rent & buy accommodation in the UK already.
There's no reason for these companies to switch to using a government ID for these kinds of decisions because that would have to be a more transparent process and less easily used to their benefit.
FWIW, I'm against mandatory ID even though we effectively already have it in the form of national insurance. IMO the ID being digital should be a non issue as long as it's optional (there also needs to be a free physical version of any national identity for those without phones).
Credit scores are opaque ratings of people kept by private organisations
They are only opaque to the extent that reduces the ability to game them. It's very common knowledge what the primary factors are that determine your credit score:
- payment history (it makes perfect sense that seen as more risky to lend to, if you don't make your loan/credit card payments on time). Also, the more consistently you make your payments on time, the more credit limit increases you get, which helps with—
- utilization (it makes perfect sense that you're seen as more risky to lend to, the closer to 'maxed out' you commonly are)
- derogatory marks (e.g. being sent to collections, having your house foreclosed on, etc.; makes perfect sense for things like these to be considered evidence of you being risky to lend to)
Without paying a cent of interest, my credit score is in the 800s, simply because I use my credit card for everyday purchases, then pay off the statement balance each month, and have done this consistently.
used to refuse business to people effectively based on their spending & borrowing behaviour
"Refuse business" is deceptively overbroad—no entity will prevent you from fully paying for something in cash based on your credit score, for example. But they may refuse to lend to you, if you have a history of failing to repay money that was lent to you in the past.
There's nothing shady about that, it makes perfect sense for one to be less willing to lend money to someone who has a reputation of not repaying their debts.
Without a credit score or similar system, lenders either will:
- treat everyone with the same caution as they would someone who's never borrowed anything before (which is detrimental to people who reliably repay their debts), if they're ethical
- guess at creditworthiness based on prejudices/biases/stereotypes of the immutable characteristics of the individual looking to borrow, inviting bigotry to play a major role in who gets loans, etc.
Credit scores are purely beneficial to good/reliable borrowers—it seems that invariably, those who have the biggest problem with them are unreliable borrowers who really wish they could hide the fact that they don't repay their debts from the next entity they intend to get more 'free money' from.
One caveat. You do get dinged on your credit score if you are too responsible with your credit. You get dinged if you don't carry a balance on your credit card. Credit reports ultimately rate how profitable you are to lenders, not how responsible you are with credit.
A bad credit score won't prevent me from buying groceries.
Yes credit scores are bullshit and the capitalist drive to maximize profit returns that leads to the application of credit scores to all sorts of things is a problem, but you're delusional if you think credit scores are WORSE than the potential to entirely freeze bank accounts due to political opinions.
I'm curious about this point because, and correct me if I'm wrong, the UK government can already freeze people's assets via the police today, it doesn't need a national ID scheme to do this.
Credit scores are used today to deny people access to housing and finance services predominantly, but can also block people from having mobile phones and even jobs.
And they're opaque we have no real way of knowing what data is used to determine them and in what way. That might include what you tweet about for all we know
Given a lot of people out there need to be able to access finance in order to be able to handle unexpected emergency costs, a bad credit score very literally could cause someone to not be able to afford groceries. Average personal debt is rising faster than inflation across the western world, so this is an increasingly big problem.
It's worse because it's a real problem today, not a hypothetical future one.
Yes a bad credit score could stop you from having access to things in emergencies, yes it could stop you from having access to things that are important in life, but there are a lot of extra steps and special circumstances that have to occur before a bad credit score is directly responsible for your fridge being empty. Most of those conditions involve simply not having money to access in the first place, and very few of them are going to be as sudden and immediately effective as a freeze on your bank account.
Needing access to financial services to handle a possible emergency is all well and good, but lacking that support structure absolutely pales in comparison to simply being forbidden from conducting commerce of any kind. No emergency needed, savings are irrelevant, the only preparation that could help you is a mattress full of cash and that's definitely neither a good solution nor a long lasting one. People live their lives every day with bad credit scores, it sucks but it's doable. Freezing what assets they have would make an immediate and decidedly negative impact well beyond the inability to get a loan. Thinking that credit scores are worse because they're not a hypothetical future problem is like saying a stubbed toe is worse than getting shot, because you haven't gotten shot yet.
Yes credit scores are bullshit
They're not. They exist for a very good reason, and are purely beneficial to people who repay what they borrow. They only 'hurt' people who don't repay their debts, but only insofar as it makes it more difficult for them to take more money from people that they then also won't pay back.
That's why my credit score went down when I paid off my student loans, right? Get the fuck outta here.
They also hurt people who are the most responsible with their credit. They ding you on your score if you don't carry a balance on your card.
I support your opinion that something similar already exists, and I am also interested in why it is necessary to introduce a digital ID?
But you know, there was that old comedy where people handed over all their data and decision-making to an intelligent computer, and now we see AI, and eventually this nonsense is considered normal. See what I'm getting at?.. What seems crazy today may become normal after a while.
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...why don't you all just revolt like the gen z protests?
Its not impossible
The NYPD is the world's 27th most expensive military, barely behind Sweden and significantly ahead of Indonesia.
So? The entire city can overwhelm the police if they cooperate.
They can't throw you all in jail if you win.
Yeah, but a lot of people die even if you win. People aren't yet desperate enough to volunteer as cannon fodder.
And so does the US democracy die.
IMO, the meme works better without the bottom text.
Doesn't this already happen in China?
"At least I'm not in China", I mutter just as the force feeding tube is shoved down my throat and my wrist shackles are reattached to my ankle shackles.
Right now, both governments suck, but Americans are usually more rebellious than the average mainland Chinese, which has always been something I liked about the US. I mean you hear about all the protests in the US? Widespread protests like these NEVER happens in mainland China. My mother still tells me to shut to about my anti-PRC views even tho we're not there anymore, and now have citizenship in another country, and I'm never going there again. Like the whole mindset of people are different. I have 50% hopes that Americans can turn this around, I have like zero hope about PRC, it's doomed, and I've already mentally given up on it. My homehand is occupied by tyranny and a population that just absolutely apathetic about the situation and doesn't give a shit.
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Asset freezing happens without digital IDs. I’m not getting the connection.
This just makes it easier and essentially instantaneous
Those freezes occur today due to court rulings and proceedings
This is removing someone’s economic ability through “they’re being mean to me and my Nazi friends”
Obviously there’s a huge difference
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One more reason why privacy online is so important.
“Your credit score looks ok but your social score is lacking, sorry I can’t rent you this apartment”
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