America was founded on freedom and rights, but big tech and big government continue to try to take those away.
The latest example is the National Institute of Standards and Technology's National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, which is currently working on developing a widespread digital identity. More specifically, NIST is working with technology companies and banks to link mobile driver's licenses with people's financial information. The broader aim is to Digital ID for everyone This is a system that centrally manages all personal information in order to strengthen cybersecurity and increase the convenience of financial transactions.
The more digital IDs are developed in the United States, the more alternatives to them will become rarer and more complicated to use, and eventually they will be outlawed or severely restricted.
NIST is working with a variety of organizations, including the California DMV, the Department of Homeland Security, Microsoft, iLabs, MATTR, the OpenID Foundation, and various major financial institutions such as Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase, and is currently contracting with various digital identity specialist companies to carry out this project.
According to According to NIST Digital ID Program Leader Ryan Galluzzo, NIST's advances are about allowing people to present their identity in the most convenient and secure way possible while still relying on traditional physical ID.
“We want to unlock the use of modern digital pathways, while still allowing for physical and manual methods where necessary.”
By linking banking information to mobile driver's licenses, NIST takes a step toward implementing a central digital ID that includes people's personal information. NIST promises that this new digital ID acceleration will “address onboarding and access for Know Your Customer/Identify Your Customer programs that demonstrate the use of mDLs and/or verifiable credentials (VCs) to open and access online financial accounts.”
The project will proceed in three main steps: According to NIST, the project aims to standardize and promote “digital identity standards” while respecting and maximizing “privacy and usability.” The digital identity project is currently in the construction phase.
Now, with technology that can identify people beyond a shadow of a doubt by analyzing the way they walk, breathe, and their irises, and with phones and GPS systems that pinpoint their location at almost every moment of the day, digital identities are increasingly open to abuse by dictatorial regimes and bad actors. The easier it is for law enforcement, governments, and bad actors to access sensitive data about their citizens, the closer we get to a digital panopticon where citizens are constantly tracked, subject to potential suspicion, and with no alternative means available for payment or identity verification.
This advancement in linking mobile driver licenses and banking is bigger news than it appears on the surface. It is easy to justify and explain away as necessary, innovative, and forward-thinking, but the more digital IDs are developed in the United States, the more likely alternatives to digital IDs will become scarcer, more complicated to use, and ultimately illegal or severely restricted. Too often, what begins as an incentive or benefit later becomes an obligation or requirement. NIST’s move to build stronger, more connected digital IDs will inevitably lead to less freedom for Americans, regardless of how these policies are framed and how positively they are interpreted.
