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Is Privacy an outdated concept or a moral right?

ID cards and the moral right to privacy.

ID cards are back on the political agenda, digital this time, being pushed by an influential group of Labour MPs, and – surveys suggest – public opinion, which is increasingly worried about illegal immigration and benefit fraud. Time was, when privacy was a free-born Briton’s birthright and a policeman asking for your papers anathema, the mark of foreign dictatorships. We live in a different world now where even your household gadgets are capable of gathering information on you. Is privacy out of date, or a moral good that’s the basis of freedom? Can we no longer tell the state – or Big Tech – to mind their own business, and does it matter?

WITNESSES:
Kirsty Innes, Director of Technology at Labour Together
Rebecca Vincent, Interim director of Big Brother Watch
Dr Hazem Zohny, University of Oxford
Tiffany Jenkins, Cultural Historian

PANELLISTS:
Rev Dr Giles Fraser
Anne McElvoy
Lord Jonathan Sumption
Matthew Taylor

Chaired by Michael Buerk
Producer: Catherine Murray
Assistant Producer: Peter Everett
Editor: Tim Pemberton

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57 minutes

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  • Wed 25 Jun 2025 20:00
  • Sat 28 Jun 2025 21:00

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