Tag Archives: Digital Identity

The path we’re on leads to more Government Control

(Photo 65763839 © Flynt | Dreamstime.com)

Important Takeaways:

  • As states continue to implement digital ID systems, it is essential that they build tools in ways that inherently protect civil liberties rather than asking citizens to just trust government officials.
  • In many states, Americans can now ditch their physical wallet and verify their identity simply by tapping their device on a scanner. And just as digital wallets from Apple and Google have made commerce more convenient, digital ID systems could potentially make government interactions faster and more efficient. But they also raise the ominous specter of government surveillance. Can we have the efficiency of a digital ID without letting government track our every move?
  • Yes, but that’s not the path we’re on.
  • Take Colorado. Since 2019, Coloradans have been able to use a digital ID as a legal form of personal identification throughout the state. Users download an application to their smartphone, enroll in the service, and have their identity authenticated by taking photos or videos of a valid ID card or other government issued documents to prove that they are who they claim to be. Then that information is encrypted, and the user is granted a digital ID and an associated key or code that serves as an identifier.
  • Coloradans can simply show their digital ID to verify their identity in much the same way as you would show your driver’s license to a bartender to prove you are over 21. That means of verifying identity is relatively private. However, many services, both public and private, are increasingly turning to electronic verification, which requires pinging a government server. This ping creates a data record outlining who, what, when, and where. Over time, these records create a government-controlled ledger of information about its citizens.

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EU preparing a new Digital Identity system for its citizens: Some are warning of the control the government will have

William Penn – “If we are not governed by God, then we will be Governed by a tyrant”

Important Takeaways:

  • A ‘Trojan Horse’ for Tyranny: Brussels Rolling Out a New ‘Digital Identity’ System for EU Citizens
  • The EU will reportedly test a new digital identity program for its citizens later this year with a rollout planned for September 2023.
  • Critics warn that it’s a “Trojan horse” that will place too much personal information in the hands of the government.
  • But the idea is also gaining support in the U.S.
  • European Parliament Member Cristian Terhes says, “Clearly we are witnessing right now, the ‘Chinafication’ of Europe, because we see what is happening in China right now with the social credit score, where the government is monitoring … all the people from the beginning to end, everything that they do, everywhere they walk. They control everything and watch everything. This is an example of tyranny.”
  • The EU’s COVID passport was supposed to be temporary. Now Brussels wants to extend it until at least June of next year. COVID passports have been used to prevent the unvaccinated from crossing borders, entering grocery stores, using public transportation, and even going to their jobs
  • Terhes warns that the EU’s new digital ID is the next step in a process in which the government in Brussels will micromanage every aspect of people’s lives.

Read the original article by clicking here.