1. There is no country where citizens called for biometric digital-ID – so in whose interests is it being imposed?

2. If human rights are entitlements due to all human beings unconditionally, why are govts making them conditional on biometric ID?

3. What is the logical end point if we allow states and corporations to conduct ever-more intrusive mass surveillance of our daily lives?

I am constantly shocked to see the billions of dollars endlessly poured into biometric digital-ID systems at a time when public services like education and healthcare are being starved of funding and we are told to accept wage stagnation and austerity.

In Britain our failing government is threatening to impose biometric digital-ID against the clear and repeatedly expressed wishes of the population. The promotion of biometric digital-ID is being bank-rolled by the World Bank with assistance from Gates, Mastercard and GIZ to name but a few.

Despite the PR claim that these systems are in citizens’ interests this is evidently not the case as citizens who do not produce biometric IDs are now excluded from right including education, healthcare, voting and welfare payments.

There are millions of citizens that simply cannot enrol in biometric digital-ID systems because they lack fingerprints, connectivity, or the registration fee. There are also many people who already experience persecution due to their ethicity, religion or political views who have well-founded reasons for avoiding registration. In countries like the UK where the government has recently been caught conducting covert mass surveillance of citizens there is reluctance to share ever more personal details with the state and corporations.

In its infinite wisdom the World Bank has lent US$350million to Ethiopia for its digital-ID program as the govt wages a civil war along ethnic lines. What could possibly go wrong? In Nigeria, the World Bank has lent US$430million to accelerate the state’s biometric digital-ID program despite a series of leaks and criminal cases involving actors selling citizens’ biometric and personal information on the open market.

There is a great deal of money to be made when huge government contracts are handed out. Global consulting firms are circling. Big Tech cloud infrastructure behemoths are rubbing their hands. Human rights are violated and exclusion grows.

If serving the public interest was the priority, then the billions of dollars currently sloshing around for these entirely unecessary digital-ID systems should be re-directed to funding dwindling heathcare and educational budgets. It is increasingly clear that biometric digital-ID systems serve powerful interests other that those of citizens, especially citizens already at the margins.

https://projects.worldbank.org/en/projects-operations/project-detail/P167183

https://projects.worldbank.org/en/projects-operations/project-detail/P179040