Tag: digital id

Mastercard’s Controversial Digital ID Rollout in Africa

One wouldn’t have pegged Mastercard for that corporation that is “driving sustainable social impact” and caring about remote communities around the world struggling to meet basic needs.

Nevertheless, here we are – or at least that’s how the global payment services behemoth advertises its push to proliferate the use of a scheme called Community Pass.

The purpose of Community Pass is to enable a  digital ID and wallet that’s contained in a “smart card.” Launched four years ago, the program – which Mastercard says, in addition to being based on digital ID, is interoperable, and works offline – targets “underserved communities” and currently has 3.5 million users, with plans of growing that number to 30 million by 2027.

According to a map on Mastercard’s site, this program is now being either piloted or has been rolled out in India, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Mauritania, while the latest announcement is the partnership with the African Development Bank Group in an initiative dubbed, Mobilizing Access to the Digital Economy (MADE).

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Digital IDs: The system of surveillance using biometrics does not require a physical ID card

When Harvey Eugene Murphy Jr. visited his home state of Texas to get his driving licence renewed, he never imagined the trip would result in him being wrongfully arrested and assaulted in jail.

Yet that is precisely what happened to the 61-year-old grandfather thanks to Houston Police’s reliance on facial recognition technology.

Murphy was arrested in relation to the armed robbery of a Sunglass Hut store in Houston. But while the real thieves were making off with thousands of dollars in cash and merchandise, Murphy was back home in California, nowhere near the scene. By the time the Harris County District Attorney’s office in Texas figured that out, it was already too late – three men had sexually assaulted Murphy in a bathroom in jail, leaving him with permanent injuries.

“Mr Murphy’s story is troubling for every citizen in this country,” said Daniel Dutko, a lawyer representing Murphy. “Any person could be improperly charged with a crime based on error-prone facial recognition software, just as he was.”

If you think that such things could never happen in the UK, think again. Some British police forces already use facial recognition tech. London’s Met Police use it on the streets routinely. It was also used last year to watch crowds at the King’s Coronation, at an Arsenal v Tottenham match, at a Beyonce gig, and even on F1 Grand Prix day at Silverstone.

According to civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, since the Met Police started using facial recognition tech, 85% of all matches identified by the system were wrong. The figure for South Wales police is even worse: 90% of matches were incorrect. “We’ve [personally] witnessed people being wrongly stopped by the police because facial recognition misidentified them,” the group said in a report.

Despite these disastrous figures, policing minister Chris Phelps wrote to police chiefs last October urging them to “double the number of [facial recognition] searches by May 2024, so they exceed 200,000 across England and Wales.”

“This dangerously authoritarian technology has the potential to turn populations into walking ID cards in a constant police lineup,” said Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch.

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New X Policy Forces Earners To Verify Their Government ID With Israeli Verification Company

X, formerly Twitter, is now mandating the use of a government ID-based account verification system for users that earn revenue on the platform – either for advertising or for paid subscriptions.

To implement this system, X has partnered with Au10tix, an Israeli company known for its identity verification solutions. Users who opt to receive payouts on the platform will have to undergo a verification process with the company.

This initiative aims to curb impersonation, fraud, and improve user support, yet it also raises profound questions about privacy and free speech, as X markets itself as a free speech platform, and free speech and anonymity often go hand-in-hand. This is especially true in countries where their speech can get citizens jailed or worse.

“We’re making changes to our Creator Subscriptions and Ads Revenue Share programs to further promote authenticity and fight fraud on the platform. Starting today, all new creators must verify their ID to receive payouts. All existing creators must do so by July 1, 2024,” the update to X’s verification page now reads.

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UNDP: Why Legal Identity Is Crucial To Tackling The Climate And Energy Crisis

In an era where legal identity is the gateway to essential services, 850 million people worldwide lack the means to establish theirs. This global identity gap, however, finds a potential bridge in the embrace of digitalization, with a major side benefit, a blog post by UNDP claims.

Digital legal identity stands as a cornerstone of digital public infrastructure, offering a pathway to inclusion and efficiency through interoperability among diverse systems.

Foundational registries like civil and national ID databases provide data for evidence-based policymaking. Yet, the integrity of this data relies on protection measures for privacy and security.

UNDP authors say sectors such as environment, energy, and social security are poised to benefit from this data. It supports risk management strategies in the face of disasters and the climate crisis, improving access to information for citizens regarding disaster and emergency response.

Amidst climate-induced disasters, targeted interventions informed by data offer multiple benefits, including predictive capabilities, preparedness efforts, and streamline response mechanisms to mitigate uncertainties. Additionally, leveraging data contributes to emission reduction initiatives, aiding in climate mitigation endeavors.

During disasters, digital identity plays a crucial role in tracking impacts, facilitating relief efforts, and optimizing energy responses. It aims to aid in allocating energy resources efficiently, maintaining essential services, and supporting emergency response teams. Additionally, it helps identify displaced populations, prioritizing assistance to vulnerable individuals and coordinating efforts across different contexts.

According to the blog, five benefits underscore the indispensability of data derived from Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) and national ID systems in confronting the climate and energy crisis.

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Belgium and Hungary Launch Controversial Digital IDs, Vaccine Passport, Ahead of EU Regulations

Belgium and Hungary are leading the way in launching digital ID wallets ahead of EU’s eIDAS (“electronic identification and trust services”) 2.0 regulation and EUDI Wallet coming into force later this month.

In Belgium, the MyGov.be app, covering all of the country’s federal public services, was launched on Tuesday, with the government promoting the digital identity as “simplifying” the use of its services, and “making life easier.”

In other words, the authorities there are playing the convenience card – while downplaying the risks that come with this type of centralization of people’s identities.

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Summer Olympics in Paris to construct digital tracking system, requiring QR Codes to attend certain events

The 2024 Summer Olympics open July 26 in Paris, France, and it will be different from any other Olympic Games.

Spectators traveling to the City of Love will have their movement tracked and restricted through the use of digital QR codes.

The city’s Olympics website states:

“The Paris 2024 Olympic Games are fast approaching, and with them come their share of security measures. These include the introduction of restricted areas accessible only on presentation of a QR code.”

The website goes on to explain that:

“The JO 2024 QR code is a unique QR code that gives access to certain restricted areas set up in Paris during the Olympic Games. These areas include competition venues, Olympic villages and fan zones.

“The QR code contains information about the holder, such as surname, first name and ticket number. This information is used to verify the person’s identity and ensure that they are authorized to enter the restricted area.”

It further explains:

“The QR code will be required to enter the security perimeters set up around the Olympic venues. These perimeters will be delimited by barriers and checkpoints. The exact zones concerned will be announced by the authorities at a later date.”

This is the same system that’s being established on a mostly voluntary basis at large-venue events here in the United States, including several Major League baseball stadiums and concert halls. U.S. airports are also implementing this system. But this is the first major event I can recall, post-Covid, where entry will be based on a mandatory QR code and certain events will be placed behind digital gates.

This is a big deal. If it’s successful, you will see other venues also mandating what amounts to a digital ID system, locking non-digitized humans out of various places. Without your digital ID, you won’t be allowed through the gates.

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Digital IDs Simultaneously Implemented By Multiple Nations At Globalist Command

Infowars and others have warned for decades about the globalist agenda to create a digital database that tracks citizens and gives the ruling class more control.

Now, the digital identification phase of this Orwellian scheme is being rolled out in almost every nation that has signed on with the corrupt anti-human elite.

Groups like the World Economic Forum, World Health Organization, United Nations, European Union and others have all planned on introducing this technology for many years, and the COVID-19 pandemic was instrumental in setting the precedent for the IDs.

The Australian Parliament passed digital ID laws on Thursday, the American Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) added digital IDs to its list of acceptable forms of identification two weeks ago, and the latest EU digital ID rules will begin being enforced on Monday.

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EU Investigates Meta in Crackdown on Alleged “Rabbit Hole” Effects, Wants It To Push Digital ID

There was a lot of talk about the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) while it was drafted and during the typical-of-the-bloc tortuous process of adoption, but now that it’s been here for a while, we’ve been getting a sense of how it is being put to use.

Utilizing the European digital ID wallet to carry out age verification is just one of the fever pitch ideas here. And EU bureaucrats are trying to make sure that these controversial policies are presented as perfectly in line with how DSA was originally pitched.

The regulation was slammed by opponents as in reality a sweeping online censorship law hiding behind focused, and noble, declarations that its goal was to protect children’s well-being, fight disinformation, etc.

The cold hard reality is that trying to (further) turn the screw – any which way they can – on platforms with the most reach and most influence ahead of an election is simply something that those in power, whether it’s the US or the EU, don’t seem to be able to resist.

Here’s the European Commission (who’s current president is actively campaigning to get reappointed in the wake of next month’s European Parliament elections) opening an investigation into Meta on suspicion its flagship platforms, Facebook and Instagram, create “addictive behavior among children and damage mental health.”

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FAA Reauthorization Bill Approves Digital IDs

The Senate passed the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization act May 9. Amongst its thousands of pages the bill includes wordage on page 1015 that approves the use of digital identification.

The push to digital methods of identifying people is not only limited to the FAA, as the Biden White House has also published a cybersecurity initiative that includes provisions for digital ID.

The push by the FAA to include digital ID as an acceptable form of information does not come as a surprise, as airports have been implementing various forms of biometric identification scanning systems.

The FAA bill is not clear as to if one form of a ‘mobile driver’s license’ is a photo of a driver’s license card on a mobile phone.

Instead, the bill goes right on to discuss the need for the federal agency to take part in celebrations surrounding the 125th anniversary of heavier-than-air flight by the Americans, over a century after Europeans mastered lighter-than-air flight.

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Biden Cybersecurity Plan Vows To Support Development of a “Digital Identity Ecosystem”

The Biden White House has come up with an updated version of the US National Cybersecurity Strategy Implementation Plan (NCSIP), that, unlike the first, addresses the issue and commits to “supporting development of a digital ID ecosystem.”

We obtained a copy of the report for you here.

That initiative is included in the document as one of the strategic objectives, the stated goal being to advance research and guidance “that supports innovation in the digital identity ecosystem through public and private collaboration.”

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been entrusted with doing that work. Listed as contributing entities are the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the General Services Administration (GSA).

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