英国的国家数字身份计划或许已经夭折，但白厅似乎忘了通知相关基础设施。尽管政府已放弃这项备受争议的计划，官员们周一却告诉议员们，GOV.UK One、数字钱包以及越来越多旨在帮助人们证明自身身份的数字凭证等工作仍在继续推进。这项被放弃的计划曾是基尔·斯塔默的旗舰政策之一，最初被提出作为一张强制性数字身份证，以打击非法务工。
Britain's national digital ID scheme may be dead, but Whitehall appears to have forgotten to tell the infrastructure. Despite the government scrapping its controversial plans, officials told MPs on Monday that work continues on GOV.UK One, digital wallets, and a growing collection of digital credentials designed to help people prove who they are. The abandoned scheme was one of Keir Starmer's flagship policies, originally pitched as a compulsory digital ID card to crack down on illegal working.
隐私倡导者对此并不买账，警告称这会带来监控和政府越权，部长们最终将其改为自愿性质，随后安迪·伯纳姆决定将整个计划彻底废弃。但取消该计划并未削弱白厅在数字身份方面的雄心。官员们本周告诉议员们，已有80多种类型的文件被指定纳入政府的数字钱包，包括福利证明、驾照考试证书以及披露与禁止服务局（DBS）证书。
Privacy campaigners weren't impressed, warning of surveillance and government overreach, and ministers eventually made it voluntary before Andy Burnham, decided to bin the whole thing. But scrapping the scheme hasn't dented Whitehall's digital identity ambitions. Officials told MPs this week that more than 80 types of documents are earmarked for the government's digital wallet, including proof of benefits, driving test certificates, and Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) certificates.
对于一个据说已经夭折的东西来说，这 paperwork 可真不少。这些情况是在周一公共账目委员会的听证会上披露的，当时议员们想知道究竟取消了什么。“但是，根据你们今天下午给我们的回答，公共部门的数字身份基础设施不是仍在推进吗？”代表切舍姆和阿默舍姆的自由民主党议员莎拉·格林问道。数字、文化、媒体和体育部常务秘书苏珊娜·斯托里急于将部长们取消的国家计划与白厅无意放弃的数字身份项目划清界限。
That's quite a lot of paperwork for something that's supposedly dead. The revelations came during a Public Accounts Committee hearing on Monday, where MPs wanted to know what exactly had been scrapped. "But is it not the case, based on the answers you've given us this afternoon, that the infrastructure of digital ID in the public sector is still being pursued?" asked Sarah Green, Liberal Democrat MP for Chesham and Amersham. Susannah Storey, DCMS permanent secretary, was keen to draw a line between the national scheme ministers had scrapped and the digital identity projects Whitehall had no intention of abandoning.
她说，其中一个项目已经允许人们在网上证明自己的身份，但“这与国家数字身份战略不是一回事。”数字、文化、媒体和体育部网络安全与数字身份主管罗德·莱瑟姆对为何如此多数字身份内容仍然保留给出了一个方便的解释：政府只是取消了推出新身份产品的计划。
One already allows people to prove who they are online, she said, but "that is not the same as a national digital identity strategy." Rod Latham, DCMS director for cybersecurity and digital identity, had a convenient explanation for why so much of digital ID was still standing: the government had only scrapped plans for a new identity product.
“我们之前就已经推出了‘One’和‘Gov Wallet’这两个数字身份认证工具，”他向议员们解释道，并补充说，在全国性数字身份认证计划正式宣布之前，相关的技术框架建设工作就已经开始了。英国政府正在抓紧时间将这项技术付诸实践——相关官员确认，目前正在进行测试工作，以使这些数字身份认证工具能够与私营企业顺利对接。
"We already had One and the Gov Wallet," he told MPs, adding that work on the digital identity trust framework was also underway before the national scheme was announced. Whitehall isn't wasting time putting that technology to use, with officials confirming that testing is already underway to enable digital credentials to work with private businesses.
负责“GOV.UK One”项目的娜塔莉·琼斯表示，政府已经为私营企业提供了一个测试环境，以便他们能够将自身的技术集成到政府的数字钱包系统中。这样一来，人们就可以使用数字驾驶执照在酒吧证明自己的年龄、领取包裹，或在线验证自己的身份。
Natalie Jones, the senior responsible owner for GOV.UK One, revealed that the government had opened a testing environment for private sector providers to integrate with its digital wallet technology. This would let people use digital driving licenses to prove their age in pubs, collect parcels, or verify their identity online.
“目前存在一个‘先有鸡还是先有蛋’的难题：数字驾驶执照只有在有用户愿意使用它、且有商家愿意接受它的情况下才有实际意义，”琼斯说道。她指出，进一步的测试计划将在12月进行，而数字驾驶执照的全国推广则定于2027年实现。议员们还就隐私问题向官员们提出了质疑，特别是询问公民的信息在政府部门之间共享之前是否需要获得他们的同意。对此，政府数字服务部门的临时总监克里斯汀·贝拉米表示：“在数字服务中使用的数字身份认证系统中，用户的同意是必要的前提。”
"We've got a bit of a chicken and egg situation. A digital driving license is only useful if there are people ready and shops and businesses ready to receive it,” Jones said, noting that further testing is planned for December, with a national rollout of digital driving licenses targeted for 2027. MPs also pressed officials on privacy, particularly whether citizens would have to consent before their information was shared between government departments. "In the confines of digital ID used in digital services, then consent is the model," said Christine Bellamy, interim director general for digital products at the Government Digital Service.
不过，这里存在一个矛盾：政府部门实际上可以在未经用户许可的情况下共享数据，而官员们却无法解释这种做法如何与他们关于用户同意的承诺相一致。贝拉米承认：“相关策略还需要进一步完善。”这可能并不能让议员们感到安心。琼斯强调，“One”系统并不是一个用于存储大量用户数据的“大数据中心”；该系统会将用户的身份信息单独存储，并且无法追踪用户在政府服务中的具体行为。她补充说：“‘One’系统不会向用户发放任何统一的身份标识符。”
There's a catch, of course. Government departments can already share data without asking permission, and officials couldn't quite explain how that squares with their promises about consent. "The strategy needs to be fully finished," Bellamy admitted, which might not be the reassurance MPs were hoping for. Jones insisted that One was "not a big data lake," saying it stores identity information separately and cannot see what users do inside government services. "One does not issue a single identifier to people," she added.
议员鲁珀特·洛仍不买账，警告称英国最终可能“从后门而非前门”引入数字身份。官员们坚持认为，被取消的全国性计划与仍在开发中的各项服务存在根本区别，并且人们仍将保留数字身份之外的替代选择。全国性数字身份或许已正式夭折，但凭借One、数字钱包以及数十项规划中的凭证，白厅仍有大量与身份相关的工作要做。®
Rupert Lowe MP remained unconvinced, warning that Britain could end up getting digital ID "by the back door rather than the front door." Officials maintained that the canceled national scheme was fundamentally different from the services still being developed, and that people would retain alternatives to digital identification. National digital ID may be officially dead, but between One, digital wallets, and dozens of planned credentials, Whitehall still has plenty of identity-related work to keep it busy. ®