My wallet is stuffed with cards. I have a driver’s licence, firearms licence, health-care card, social insurance card, and several credit and debit cards. It’s annoying keeping up with the expiry dates on all these cards and it can be a catastrophe if they are lost. It tempts a person to embrace the concept of some kind of universal digital ID, and we have governments eager to set up such a system.
We can’t let ourselves succumb to the temptation of handing it all off to the state, however. The potential loss of privacy and personal liberty is too high a price in exchange for convenience.
The government is cloaking its efforts in language claiming the move to digital ID will help counter what they call “misinformation” or “disinformation” online.
How would a digital ID counter such things?
Is the government implying it will be able to monitor and directly control the conversations and postings of citizens online? How then would the government intervene if and when it feels somebody posted something inappropriate? Would they cut off online access? Contact citizens? Fine citizens? Knock on the door in the night?
Authoritarian states thrive on control and in today’s digital world, if the state controls a person’s digital identity, it controls the person. With a solitary ID managed by the government and shared with other governments, every move, online communication, and financial transaction could be tracked. A citizen’s ability to work, travel, or purchase products could be limited or halted if the state deems such an action appropriate. We can’t forget how the government seized the bank accounts of people who supported the trucker’s convoy protest in Ottawa. Just imagine what the state would have done if everybody taking part in the protests was dependent upon a digital ID.
The concept of 15-minute cities is being increasingly pushed by globalists. The challenge for authoritarians is in monitoring and policing the movement of citizens lest they travel outside the boundaries set up ostensibly for protecting the environment. The UK has already moved toward this in tracking licence plates in Oxford and fining people who drove out of the zone without proper approval. With digital ID tracking us, individuals rather than autos can be tracked and controlled. With the data being shared, you could be compelled to do location check-ins. It would only take a second to tap your phone or card at a transit station or business, right?
Imagine not being able to start your car because you need to tap your ID to do so, and the government has pulled your licence due to late tax payments or having said the wrong thing online.
Aside from governments that may not have your best interests in mind, having all your personal data stored and shared between countries will make you more vulnerable to hackers and identity thieves than ever. The repositories of international digital ID information will become instant targets. The opportunities for identity theft or extortion provided through digital ID will draw the attention of every hacker on Earth.
Where will a citizen find recourse if their identity is stolen from an overseas database? The Canadian government would likely say it was out of its hands.
Becoming reliant on digital ID also makes citizens more reliant on power grids and telecommunications. This could cause mayhem in the event of a disaster. What if there was a mass power failure and people couldn’t start their cars without tapping their digital ID and they didn’t have any form of cash to purchase consumer goods?
We are incrementally giving away our freedoms for the sake of convenience. People naively assume the government will always have their best interests at heart despite centuries of human actions proving otherwise.
In trading the personal information of Canadians with foreign nations for the sake of an international digital ID, the government is trading away our liberty. Once that toothpaste is out of the tube we won’t be able to get it back in, and most people don’t even realize it’s happening.
