Consumers “incredibly worried” about Digital ID due to hack risk, cyber experts warn

Join the Claim – a free service that helps individuals understand their rights and connect with law firms following large data breaches – says users have voiced doubt over their sensitive information being kept safe.

Announced by the government earlier this year, the proposed introduction of digital ID is intended to streamline access to public services, benefits, banking, employment checks and age verification processes.

But the plans come during one of the UK’s worst periods for data breaches, with the frequency and severity of data breaches leading to 2025 being known as the “year of the cyber attack”.

Jordan Clayton, founder of Join the Claim, said: “People are being affected by mass cyber attacks on a more frequent basis, with criminals exploiting large amounts of sensitive data, and now they’re being asked to hand over even more personal information to a single centralised system”.

Hundreds of users on Join the Claim’s social media forums have made clear their views about digital ID risks, with posts such as:

“Cyber attacks are why I don’t trust the government with all my ID information for the digital ID” and: “Roll on digital ID – a hacker’s paradise.”

A petition opposing the introduction of digital ID, signed by more than 2.9 million people, was debated in Parliament on 8 December. However, the government’s recent efforts to curb illegal immigration make this issue particularly contentious.

Digital ID verification is expected to rely heavily on external technology providers, meaning consumers’ information would pass through multiple commercial systems, increasing the risk of a breach outside the government’s control.

Jordan continues: “We’ve seen this before with major retailers including M&S and Co-op. When third parties enter the chain, the vulnerability expands.

“Each additional organisation becomes another potential point of failure, and the consequences fall on ordinary people, not corporations.

“In response to the Legal Aid data breach, which exposed over 2 million pieces of data, Join the Claim has already onboarded many individuals, sending a powerful message to the Ministry of Justice that the government has failed before and that people are determined not to let their data be compromised again.”

Join the Claim says that public confidence must be prioritised, with stronger obligations placed on any organisation handling digital identity data – including private vendors, subcontractors and identity-checking platforms.

Independent YouGov polling, commissioned by Big Brother Watch, shows that 63% of the UK public harbour concerns about the security of their personal data within a national digital ID scheme.

These worries come just a month after Capita, one of the UK’s largest outsourcing firms, was fined £14 million for a data breach that exposed sensitive information – including home addresses, criminal records and financial data – for both private and public sector clients.

As part of the push for greater accountability, Join the Claim is calling on the government to back its new 4-point public guarantee for Digital ID.

The pledge demands:

• Full transparency over where data is stored;
• Immediate and full disclosure of any breach attempts;
• Independent annual audits of the system’s security and resilience;
• Strict limits on data sharing – including a complete ban on commercial profiling.

Join the Claim says such safeguards are essential to ensure that convenience never comes at the cost of personal security.