Unknowns and control in the world’s digital ID. The WEF thinks about possible solutions
“Perhaps the biggest risks from digital identification are exclusion, marginalization and oppression”writes the study “Reimagining Digital ID,” published in June by the World Economic Forum which for the first time recognizes the dangers of digital identity desired by many states. “Sensitive data, such as biometric data, carry a high risk of exploitation,” explains the report, “this is particularly worrying in the case of marginalized communities such as refugees because it can facilitate discriminatory targeting”.
And again: “Often it is the members of historically marginalized groups who face the harshest forms of exclusion”. All this, however, in the face of “about 850 million people in the world who still do not have an official identity document, while some of those who do have an identity document struggle with the lack of control over privacy and data”.
A “technology” therefore with strengths and weaknesses. Of course, the study does not stigmatize specific cases of improper applications by states or companies, even if it cites some examples of bodies who use, will use or are already working with digital identity: some governments apply it for electoral exercises, so banks for access to services, other specific sectors, social media platforms do it (Swedish BankID, Gov. UK Check, Meta, Google, VCI, in some companies for international air transport, in the travel subscriptions of the IATA Association of Montreal, the Digital Identity-NDI-for the Government of Bhutan National).
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