Digital ID And You

How to Protect Your Privacy

As the United Nations gears up for its Summit of the Future, to be held in September during the 79th General Assembly, I am offering a series on Agenda 2030, the agenda that the Summit is intended to advance. One of the outcome documents that the member states will sign is the Global Digital Compact. And one of the major elements of that agreement is the establishment of digital identity for every single person on the planet.

You’ve probably read about digital identity but you may not know what the entirety of the project entails and signifies. And you may be contributing to your own digital identity without knowing it. For reasons that will become clear, this is not something that you want to do. Read to the end to find out how you can elude the clutches of this globalist, totalitarian surveillance system.

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As defined by the World Economic Forum (WEF), digital identity is “the sum total of the growing and evolving mass of information about us, our profiles and the history of our activities online. It relates to inferences made about us, based on this mass of information, which become new data points” (emphasis mine).¹

Digital identity is thus not merely a new, more handy, lightweight, digital form of identification. It refers to a collection of data that purportedly defines who we are, including what we do both online and off-line—if “off-line” life can still be said to exist—and not merely to a means by which we can be identified as such.

While it suggests “there will be no ‘one-size-fits-all’” digital identity,² the UN’s ID2020 project and the WEF boast the “interoperability” of digital identity so that the same digital identity can function across business and governmental contexts— although the digital identity will be partitioned so that different agencies and entities can interface with and access parts of the digital ID.³

For businesses, this means expanded markets and business lines and more tar­geted advertising and marketing, while for govern­ments it means “digital governance,” which the WEF suggests would result in “better delivery of services, a more engaged citizenry and a tool against corruption and crime.” For individuals, digital identity will be sold for the ease of access to financial, political, ed­ucational, healthcare, and other services, but, the WEF admits, it could also entail “unwarranted surveillance, discrimina­tion and abuse.”⁴

Digital identity is sold by the UN, the World Bank, and the WEF as a means of “inclusion” of the marginalized in the global economy as well as for the “convenience” of those in the developed world. 1.1 billion people, we are told, have no form of identification, and the digital identity would not only supply identification but also incorporate subjects into a system that otherwise excludes them.⁵

But digital identity extended to the poor could mean the inability to participate in society without one—for everyone. The demand for total “inclusion” means there will be no escape from the digital surveillance afforded by the digital identity. Whenever the word “inclusion” is used, we must consider the totalitarian prospects that it implies: there is no outside of the system.

Meanwhile, as New York University Law School’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice argues in “Paving a Digital Road to Hell?,” digital identity systems have not only proven to lack inclusivity, but the rapid and wide-scale deployment of digital ID systems to date has proven “dangerous” and has led to “often severe and large-scale, human rights violations…Such systems may exacerbate pre-existing forms of exclusion and discrimination in public and private services” (emphasis mine).⁶

Nevertheless, Canada, drawing on a partnership with the WEF’s “Known Traveler Digital Identity” (KTDI) program,⁷ is developing a new federal “Digital Identity Program” as part of its “Digital Ambition 2022” project.⁸ Officials have said that the program is “the electronic equivalent of a recognized proof-of-identity document,” such as a driver’s license or passport, which “confirms that ‘you are who you say you are’ in a digital context.” However, we have already seen that the digital identity is not a mere digital means of identification.

But even if Canada’s digital identity system only serves as identification at first, as the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice notes, digital identities are prone to “function creep.” That is, “they are intended to be used for multiple purposes that are unforeseen when the system is first designed.”⁹ Digital identities have the potential to accrete new functions that will be added to those for which the system is developed and implemented. That means that banking and other commercial functions could be added but also potentially political ones, as well as vaccine passports. The digital identity system thus could establish economic, political, and social profiles for all users—or everyone. And the UN has made clear that a digital ID will be needed to prove that you even exist.

Canada forecasted what it (and other nations ) could do with a national digital identity system, when in response to the trucker convoy protest, the government shut down bank accounts¹⁰ and repossessed trucks and other vehicles as punishment for the truckers who opposed the government’s lockdowns and vaccine mandates.¹¹

The central digital ID project is ID2020, which is a collaboration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to develop standards for a universal digital identity.¹² ID2020 is a “public-private partnership.” It is not developing digital identity technology systems but works in an alliance with companies that do.¹³

One of the most disturbing elements of ID2020 is its objective of providing “infants with a portable, biometrically-linked digital ID either at the point of birth registration or at the time of routine immunization…”¹⁴ As such, the digital identity will track people from cradle to grave, inclusive of their vaccine statuses. ID2020 has as one of its goals: “Increase the number of fully immunized children.”¹⁵

ID2020 is funded by Microsoft, Accenture, Gavi, the Rockefeller Foundation, and IDEO.¹⁶ Gavi is the Vaccine Alliance, which has been “leading global efforts on equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.”¹⁷ Gavi is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.¹⁸ Thus, we can be sure that the digital ID is entwined with the vaccine regime and that the vaccine passport is more than likely to become a feature of digital identity.

The WEF suggests that digital identity is a fait accompli and that resistance to this development is both futile and undermining of self-interest. After all, digital identities are already in existence, and who wouldn’t want the access and convenience that a universal digital identity would provide?

As with most Fourth Industrial Revolution (4-IR) developments, the WEF promotes digital identity as a boon to society. But of all the other means of identifying and tracking subjects, the digital identity poses perhaps the gravest technological threat to individual liberty yet conceived.

Digital identity will be implemented to trace, track, and surveil subjects and to compile a complete record of all activity. Integrated with a kind of social credit scoring system like the one supposed to be in place in China, as well as a vaccine passport, the digital identity could serve as a definitive means for political profiling, for perfecting the means of political cancellation already a part of Western life.

The digital identity could very well include an ESG score for individuals, thus barring the non-compliant from the civic life and making political deplorables out of millions. Linked with central bank digital currency (CBDC, discussed in my next stack), digital identity could bar these undesirables from the economy, forcing them to beg, borrow, and steal in the shadows. Worse yet, it is not beyond governments to use the digital identity as a pretext for “pre-crime” arrests and political imprisonment.

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If you are concerned about privacy and digital identity, you should be. While it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, the truth is, reclaiming your privacy is a lot easier than you think—if you know where to start and have a privacy expert to guide you.

That’s why I’ve asked my friend Glenn Meder, an online Privacy and Security Expert, to prove that in his Webinar on Thursday, September 5th at 11am CT. (12pm ET/ 10am MT/ 9am PT)

"TOP 5 STEPS TO EXIT THE SURVEILLANCE STATE & PROTECT YOURSELF ONLINE."

You do not have to be tech savvy to take back your privacy. You don’t need any high-level technical skills. All you need is a desire to stand your ground and say, “enough!” to all the encroachment on your God-given right to privacy.

Glenn will even stay on to answer your questions live!

If you feel overwhelmed because you think there’s no way to protect your online privacy, you need the strategies Glenn is giving away for FREE!

It’s time to take back your privacy.

>>> Click here to join the free privacy webinar <<<

Michael Rectenwald

1. “Identity in a Digital World: A New Chapter in the Social Contract,” World Economic Forum, September 2018, https://www3.weforum.org/docs/.

2. Ibid., page 10.

3. Ibid., passim.

4. Ibid., page 10.

5. “1.1 Billion ‘Invisible’ People without ID Are Priority for New High Level Advisory Council on Identification for Development,” World Bank Blogs (blog), October 12, 2017, https://doi.org/10/12/11-billion-invisible-people-without-id-are-pri¬or¬ity-for-new-high-level-advisory-council-on-identification-for-development.

6. “Paving a Digital Road to Hell? A Primer on the Role of the World Bank and Global Networks in Promoting Digital ID,” Center for Human Rights & Global Justice, NYU School of Law, June 2022, https://covidcalltohumanity.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Re¬port_Paving-a-Digital-Road-to-Hell.pdf, page 6.

7. “The Government of Canada to Test Cutting-Edge Technologies to Support Secure and Seamless Global Travel for Air Passengers,” Transport Canada, Canada.ca, Government of Canada, January 25, 2018, https://www.canada.ca/en/transportcanada/news/2018/01/the_government_ofcanadatotestcutting-edgetechnologiestosuppor¬tse.html; KTDI, accessed August 22, 2022, https://ktdi.org/.

8. Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, “Canada’s Digital Ambition 2022,” Canada.ca, Government of Canada, August 4, 2022, https://www.canada.ca/en/government/system/digital-government/government-canada-digital-operations-strategic-plans/canada-digi¬tal-ambition.html.

9. “Paving a Digital Road to Hell? A Primer on the Role of the World Bank and Global Networks in Promoting Digital ID,” Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, NYU School of Law, page 12.

10. Matthew Loh, “Canada Says It Will Freeze the Bank Accounts of ‘Freedom Convoy’ Truckers Who Continue Their Anti-Vaccine Mandate Blockades,” Business Insider, February 14, 2022, https://www.businessinsider.com/trudeau-canada-freeze-bank-accounts-freedom-convoy-truckers-2022-2.

11. Erin Marquis, “Ottawa Mayor Suggests Selling Vehicles Seized from Freedom Convoy to Pay Enforcement Costs,” Jalopnik, February 22, 2022, https://jalopnik.com/ottawa-mayor-suggests-selling-vehicles-seized-from-free-1848575043.

12. “Announcing the 2018 ID2020 Summit – Towards ‘Good’ Digital Identity,” UNHCR Blog, September 6, 2018, https://www.unhcr.org/blogs/announcing-the-2018-id2020-summit-towards-good-digi¬tal-identity/.

13. “ID2020 | Alliance & Governance,” ID2020, https://id2020.org/alliance.

14. “ID2020 | Digital Health ID RFP,” ID2020, https://id2020.org/digital-health-id-rfp.

15. Ibid.

16. Yinka Okeowo, “Meet 5 Founding Partners of ID2020 Alli¬ance,” TechEconomy Nigeria, March 27, 2021, https://techeconomy.ng/2020/04/meet-5-founding-partners-of-id2020-alliance/.

17. “Responding to Covid-19,” Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, accessed September 27, 2022, https://www.gavi.org/covid19.

18. “The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,” Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, July 29, 2020, https://www.gavi.org/operating-model/ga¬vis-partnership-model/bill-melinda-gates-foundation.