14.12.2023

Global digital identification - benefit or means of social coercion?

The four forms of digital identity are user-centered identity, user-enabled identity, social identity and machine identity. These comprise individual user profiles, attributes, user-controlled, social network identities and machine-machine identifiers.

The benefits envisioned by the system's proponents are primarily related to cost savings related to any kind of interaction involving user identification, data transfer and any kind of operations, financial, fiscal, administrative, possibly judicial in the future. A concrete example of cost savings are banking IT applications which have greatly reduced the number of human agents interacting with bank customers. In these applications, identification uses similar but not identical methods.

A globally recognized ID, which will be based on much more advanced technologies, could, for example, truly replace a human assistant allowing interaction with those who do not now use a smartphone, tablet or laptop, either in the form of a hologram, humanizing a large part of the procedures currently used to identify and secure transactions, or in the form of processing the individual's will to short-circuit most of the steps and various methods now used to ensure the security and confidentiality of access to a database, be it financial or other.

Currently, in the European Union, there is a common digital identification project, the European Digital Identity Identity Wallet (EUDI), governed by the eIDAS regulation. Approximately 18 to 24 months after the regulation comes into force, all 27 EU Member States will provide every citizen who wants a digital identity with the practical ability to be identified in this way. According to experts in the field, however, the practical implementation could take up to a decade. In the meantime, new products like Earth ID are trying to make digital identity available to everyone, including those without access to the latest generation of phones.

The EU hopes that 80% of EU citizens will have adopted a digital identity wallet by 2030. Under the umbrella of eIDAS, the regulation governing the EU's digital identity, four large-scale pilot projects have started, including the EU Digital Identity Wallet Consortium (EWC), Digital Credentials 4 Europe (DC4E), Nordic-Baltic eID (NOBID) and Pilots for Digital Identities Wallet (POTENTIAL ) with hundreds of participants. The EWC pilot, for example, covers all Member States and has 41 beneficiaries and 35 associated partners. It is run by Bolagsverket, the Swedish registry office.

One of the companies involved in the EWC is the data exchange platform iGrant, which primarily analyzes use cases for travel, payments and organizational digital identity (ODI), a wallet for legal entities, which is basically a typical wallet ecosystem.

Typically, a system consists of an individual and a data source, also known as a data issuer or data producer, as well as a service that uses data or a data consumer. The data source issues any information that may be held by the individual or data wallet holder. This information could be shared with any third party provider. It is also different from existing solutions that rely on next-generation smartphones, creating accessibility barriers for people from lower socio-economic backgrounds, or for people who do not have the knowledge to access these interfaces.

The phasing out of cash automatically creates the need for a digital wallet that is secure, privacy-preserving and interoperable, inextricably linked to a person's identification. This identification may or may not in future also be linked to a person's biometric data.

The main problem at the moment is the integration into the system of digital identity users of those people who do not have access to the technology, either due to lack of funds or lack of knowledge. This can be overcome by the use of subcutaneous implants, which short-circuit the steps that are carried out today on various devices. This type of implants use Near Field Communication (NFC), a contactless and wireless communication technology that uses radio waves to share digital information.

In general, it is a small device, about the size of a small safety pin, half a millimeter thick, consisting of a microprocessor and a silicon envelope that acts as an antenna, all enclosed in a hermetically sealed bio-enclosure. The implants can be placed anywhere under the skin, but the palm of the hand is most practical. The aim would be to replace a bulky wallet and be a convenient and concomitant alternative to a credit card, ID card, passport and/or any kind of device with a payment or identification function, either for access to an enclosure or for use of services.

The implant may not be scanned or photographed like a credit or debit card in order to further exploit the data printed on it. The implant is "literally" always within reach, allowing users to make payments, even in situations where they have not taken their wallets.

Naturally, the main fear of the widespread implementation of these technologies is the narrowing to the point of elimination of the choice of how to interact with society in general other than within a pre-determined technological framework, and the possibility of the state or other entities controlling this general interoperable technological framework - a digital ecosystem - to eliminate the de facto freedoms of any individual based on random criteria or aimed at implementing a totalitarian dystopian state.

There is a risk that, under these conditions, that choice of a part of the population that has chosen to live off-the-grid will be supported by a growing number of people, up to the danger of social fracturing or civil war.

An article by Veronica Dobozi (vdobozi@stoica-asociatii.ro), Partner, STOICA & Associates.