According to the World Bank, global digital ID systems are going to lead humanity toward an equitable digital future. If this is true, why are governments (European Union countries, the UK, Australia, Canada and dozens of countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America) around the world hastily and secretly investing, designing, developing and testing digital identity systems (with biometric components)? 

Do you recall voting for a digital ID system at the recent and any past Australian Federal election? Not a word was mentioned by PM Anthony Albanese. The only politicians who did raise concern were Senators Rennick, Antic and Roberts. 

The previous Coalition government allocated AUS$250 million to Australia’s digital ID program in the 2020 budget, on top of the AU$92.4 million initially invested in it and a separate AU$67.2 million funding boost. Not only has there been no transparency on how this money is being spent, there has been a concerted push to introduce legislation designed to underpin the digital ID.  

In 2014, the World Bank (with generous financial contributions from the Gates Foundation) started the ID4D program. The World Bank had an epiphany and that was over 1.1 billion people across the globe were unable to prove their identity and this was therefore causing inequality in them accessing healthcare, social protection, education and finance.  

NYU’s School of Law, Center of Human Rights & Global Justice published a report in June 2022 on this very existential dilemma; 

“Through the embrace of digital technologies, the World Bank and a broader global network of actors has been promoting a new paradigm for ID systems that prioritizes what we refer to as ‘economic identity.’

These systems focus on fueling digital transactions and transforming individuals into traceable data. They often ignore the ability of identification systems to recognize not only that an individual is unique, but that they have a legal status with associated rights. 

Still, proponents have cloaked this new paradigm in the language of human rights and inclusion, arguing that such systems will help to achieve multiple Sustainable Development Goals. Like physical roads, national digital identification systems with biometric components (digital ID systems) are presented as the public infrastructure of the digital future… 

The Covid Pandemic provided an opportunity for Australians to become comfortable with being tracked and traced, and anyone of us caught “not checking in or showing our vaccine certificates,” faced fines and legal headaches.  

Andrew Bud, the CEO of biometric software company iProove, described vaccine certificates as the future drivers of digital IDs and once adopted for COVID the technology will be rapidly used for other aspects of our lives. 

The NYU report further identified, digital identity systems have the potential to impact many basic human rights, including the right to food, health, ownership, privacy and data protection. The right to equal treatment and protection from discrimination, the right to dignity, free expression, association and education. The right to work, start and run a business, employ staff, have children and invest, have bank accounts, the right to freedom of movement and the right to housing.  

This global digital ID network consists of many public and private actors, such as the governments of the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Australia, Israel and France.  Global foundations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and the Omidyar Network, owned by billionaire Pierre Omidyar. If you thought that was enough, add a few more governments to the list, ones whose digital ID systems are currently being beta tested; Estonia, India, Peru, and Pakistan. UN agencies; regional development banks, including the Asian Development Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank are also part of the network.

Biometrics corporations such as Idemia, Thales, and Gemalto and financial card companies such as MasterCard are finalizing new networks such as the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) and ID4Africa. 

Please read “Paving a Digital Road to Hell” because Digital ID systems will, determine the shape and form of our digital governments and societies of the future. This is a serious existential issue that needs to be discussed, debated and challenged by every individual, business and organisation before it is too late.