Posted on 06/22/2017 10:51:36 AM PDT by MarchonDC09122009
UN wants a universal digital ID for your data
Humanitarians and tech companies say a digital form of identification would be particularly useful for refugees separated from their personal documents.
Maja Vujinovic knows first-hand what it's like to be at a border when you don't have identification.
In 1993, her family was escaping Yugoslavia as its sovereignty was crumbling. At one border check, she heard a guard yelling, "So what? They don't exist. You can do with them what you'd like."
Because Yugoslavia stopped existing as a nation, countries weren't recognizing the IDs of its onetime citizens, Vujinovic said. Officially, her family's names, birth dates, professional history -- none of it existed.
Now, as the chief innovation officer at General Electric Digital, she spoke at the ID2020 Summit at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Monday, a day ahead of World Refugee Day. At the summit, tech companies like Microsoft and Accenture and humanitarian groups including the World Food Programme and the UN Refugee Agency want to create a digital identification for every person on the planet, one that's tied to their fingerprints, birth date, medical records, education, travel, bank accounts and more.
It's a lofty goal, but a universal digital ID could ease the headache of travel and potentially ensure that you'll have access to it, since you could pull it up via a phone app. That's a particularly resonant issue for refugees, many of whom have to leave their homes behind at a moment's notice. During times of chaos, documents are often the last thing on refugees' minds, but the first problem they run into when they're seeking asylum.
There's still the challenge of adoption, but the summit was more about showing off what the technology can do.
Accenture demonstrated a working prototype that would provide a person's information through an app. In the absence of a personal device, that person could still be recognized through fingerprints or iris scans, as long as that information was in the database.
During the demonstration, David Treat, a managing director at Accenture, said that the prototype took three weeks to develop and that hoped it would be used at borders to show identification through QR codes.
"We're not talking about years and years of build," Treat said. "The technology is here, and it's scalable."
It's a scary thought to put all your personal information -- including your medical records and banking information -- in a single app, but experts at the summit believe that blockchain technology, a way of using databases to encrypt data that's also used for bitcoin, can protect users.
It's not a reality yet. For now, the ID2020 Summit is pointing to India as a case study of what a world with a digital ID could look like.
In 2009, India launched Aadhaar, a digital ID program in which citizens voluntarily enroll name, birth date, gender, address, phone number, email, 10 fingerprints, two eye scans and photo. In exchange, they can use the digital ID to sign documents online, apply for credit and jobs, go to hospitals and exchange money, among other features. Pramod Varma, the chief architect of the program, believes that India will become "data rich" in a few years.
There are 25 million authentications using Aadhaar every day, and in June, the program reached 1.1 billion people enrolled -- about 85 percent of the population.
But India's digital ID program also comes with its own security issues. While a government official told the Supreme Court in India that Aadhaar was "the most foolproof method that has evolved," the Centre for Internet and Society discovered that 130 million people had their information leaked from four government websites.
Varma said they're working on creating an "electronic consent architecture" so data ownership goes back to the users, not the government.
"Data sharing must put the person right in the middle," Varma said. "You or I must own our own data."
For now, you'll have to stick to your passport and driver's license.
Corrections, June 21 at 7:37 a.m. and 2 p.m. PT: This article originally misstated Maja Vujinovic's title and her role at the ID2020 Summit. She is chief innovation officer at General Electric Digital and was a guest speaker at the ID2020 Summit.
Blockchain is not "a way of using databases to encrypt data", far from it. If the blockchain encrypted transaction data, it would not work because it has to be readable by every node. The (mostly personally owned) private keys are used in blockchain to sign transactions. Those can be to transfer value, but also to vouch for authenticity of any sort.
For example an authority can vouch for an individual by signing a transaction and placing it on the blockchain. That data cannot be altered, the data is universally available, but it is not encrypted. That would require an extra layer on top of blockchain. Users will not be "protected" by blockchain, they will be protected (or not) by whatever kludge someone adds to the blockchain client software.
On the broader issue of whether ID information should be stored in any kind of respository, the answer is hell no. It is never possible to secure it. Storing biometrics would be especially bad.
And most of it will not be true.
Ah but not the newpapers and more of a hundred years ago arr also being scanned and posted as searchable content online. So much info for the sake of info.
Didn’t it just come out that GOP data stored on amazon’s server got hacked/stolen? Why isn’t that a part of the same govt investigation into medfling in the US elections?
Didn’t it just come out that GOP data stored on amazon’s server got hacked/stolen? Why isn’t that a part of the same govt investigation into medfling in the US elections?
What could possibly go wrong with this brainfart?
"You needn't worry, Citizen, as long as you aren't doing anything wrong. You aren't doing anything WRONG, are you, Citizen???"
The mark of the beast.
“I left alone my mind was blank
I needed time to think to get the memories from my mind....”
Thanks! I just ordered the DVD Revelation in the Words of Jesus and copied a photo for my Sunday School Class lesson for powerpoint after your alerting me to this post.
Great! I wish they had included the Two Witnesses but otherwise it’s pretty good.
BTW, I’ve met and spoke with Dr. Ed Hindson a couple of times. Great guy. You’ll see him in the video. Ed was just on the John Ankerberg show (taped broadcast) this past Sunday.
I have his revelation DVD with handouts I have used at church for a quick overview. If you have ever read the Wilkerson “The Vision” that a lot of people poo-pooed. . . his vision revealed things/events that are coming to pass that in my wildest dreams I wouldn’t have thought would be happening in this country. We have lost our way. . .minds given over to a reprobate mindset where there is no reasoning with some people, etc. etc. etc. and churches just sitting on the sidelines. Lukewarm and you know what that will get them.
Definitely a rude awakening. I worked for a Christian publishing organization. They started going all liberal and the ridiculous preterist and partial-preterist nonsense.
Then, they couldn’t figure out why no one was buying their stuff. Sales were way down. Then, they made a disastrous decision that cost them their home office building. They had to sell it and move out. I don’t name them public or private. It was the fault of less than 1/2 dozen or so in management.
I’ll send ya FReepmail about the video in a minute or two.
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