It’s about control and compliance
Australians are being encouraged to go down the path of creating Digital Identities and the parliament is currently considering a bill (or proposed law) that will enable the process.
Already there’s technology in place that quietly feeds our personal information to the government — think how powerful the ATO has become with its access to almost every detail of our lives.
The Australian Government wants to escalate the overreach. Its case for creating digital identities paints a wonderful picture of the benefits — convenient, efficient, reusable, private, and secure — but it’s not all lollipops and rainbows. This is mass biometric surveillance, and once it is introduced there will be enormous capacity for it to be misused.
wave goodbye to your privacy
- We are assured, by the Australian government, that our personal information will be “securely encrypted and stored in Australia”.But past privacy breaches raise doubts and the best way to keep your personal information secure is to not digitise it in the first place.
- We are assured our personal information will be “shared with chosen service providers only with your consent”.But governments have ways to force your consent and once they have the data, a government has the power to “justify” doing with it whatever they see fit.
- We are assured our data will be “protected by strict protocols set by the Australian Government”. But handling of digital identities in other countries have shown it is the government we should fear the most – and they have the ability to change their “protocols” at any time