Not security in the sense of tracking people with malign intent, but security of the identity system against attacks and fraud. It's hard to see how a decently

Not security in the sense of tracking people with malign intent, but security of the identity system against attacks and fraud. It's hard to see how a decently-implemented electronic ID wouldn't at first seem to be significantly more secure than the current mix of services that exist at the moment. Think how much havoc a determined individual (who knew and hated you) could cause if they were determined to usurp or disrupt your identity: I'm pretty sure all kinds of government and private services could be diverted with phone calls, lies and trivially-forged paper documents. On the other hand a central system has the risk of all the data being stolen, sold or subjected to denial of service. It's a difficult thing to weigh up.