Security and Privacy Perceptions of E- ID: A Grounded Research

This paper reports on research in progress that explores the perceptions of security and privacy of UK citizens regarding electronic identity cards. In the wake of the UK National Identity Scheme proposals and with the introduction of electronic identity cards in the coming years, it is important to understand the perspectives of UK citizens. The Scheme sparked furious public debate, but as yet public opinion on the issues has not been researched systematically. Following grounded theory methods of open-coding content analysis, the findings present an empirically-grounded framework depicting the prevailing perceptions held by UK citizens. Four high-level constructs and a set of sub-categories constitute the framework that emerged: Public authorities (Competence and Integrity), Personal privacy principles (Risk/Benefit Balance, Citizen Control and A priori Anti-ID card), Legal and regulatory, and, Systems and technology. Rather than simply indicating whether citizens were 'for' or 'against' eID, the findings from the analysis uncover the reasons behind citizens' attitudes, whether positive, ambivalent or negative, and testify to the diversity of issues and concerns preoccupying them. Preliminary implications are drawn from the findings, specifically as regards the management of information and identity risk to UK citizens brought about by new identity management systems. Further directions for development of this research in progress are signposted.