Official documents going electronic

[mtbc]

I think it silly of His Majesty's Government to have switched from issuing physical visas to virtual "eVisas" that one checks by typing an alphanumeric code into a government website. It assumes far too much of mobile data connectivity when one is in some random place where one's documents are being checked. Further, what actually happens is absurd: people get you to show them your visa details in the web browser on your own mobile telephone, something easily faked.

Presumably thrilled with this success, apparently the Government is now moving on to introducing digital driving licences. For the moment, these are to be an optional add-on beyond the physical photocard, presumably most welcomed by those non-immigrants who would also like an easy way to fake their details. I suppose that I can imagine a version that shows a QR code bearing cryptographically signed data that can be verified by some reader, even printed out as insurance against device failure, but, given the eVisa implementation, I am not holding my breath for such.

Comments

[dewline]

Yeah, that really doesn't seem like a good idea. At all.

[thewayne]

It's a good thing that the internet has 100% uptime around the world, even in places with no signals or WiFi. Otherwise, such a thing would be quite silly.

/s