Skip to main content
×
Blacklisted Listed News Logo
Menu - Navigation
Menu - Navigation

Cited Sources

2nd Smartest Guy in the World
2nd Amendment Shirts
10th Amendment Center
Aaron Mate
Activist Post
AIER
Aletho News
Ammo.com
AmmoLand
Alliance for Natural Health, The
Alt-Market
American Free Press
Antiwar
Armstrong Economics
Art of Liberty
AUTOMATIC EARTH, The
Ben Bartee
Benny Wills
Big League Politics
Black Vault, The
BOMBTHROWER
Brandon Turbeville
Breaking Defense
Breitbart
Brownstone Institute
Burning Platform, The
Business Insider
Business Week
Caitlin Johnstone
Campus Reform
CAPITALIST EXPLOITS
Charles Hugh Smith
Children's Health Defense
CHRISTOPHE BARRAUD
Chris Wick
CIAgate
Citizen Free Press
Citizens for Legit Gov.
CNN Money
Collective Evolution
Common Dreams
Conscious Resistance Network
Corbett Report
Counter Signal, The
Cryptogon
Cryptome
Daily Bell, The
Daily Reckoning, The
Daily Veracity
DANERIC'S ELLIOTT WAVES
Dark Journalist
David Haggith
Defense Industry Daily
Defense Link
Defense One
Dennis Broe
DOLLAR COLLAPSE
DR. HOUSING BUBBLE
Dr. Robert Malone
Drs. Wolfson
Drudge Report
Economic Collapse, The
ECONOMIC POPULIST, The
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Ellen Brown
Emerald Robinson
Expose, The
F. William Engdahl
FAIR
Farm Wars
Faux Capitalist
FINANCIAL REVOLUTIONIST
Forbes
Foreign Policy Journal
FOREXLIVE
Foundation For Economic Freedom
Free Thought Project, The
From Behind Enemy Lines
From The Trenches
FUNDIST
Future of Freedom Foundation
Futurism
GAINS PAINS & CAPITAL
GEFIRA
Geopolitical Monitor
Glenn Greenwald
Global Research
Global Security
GM RESEARCH
GOLD CORE
Grayzone, The
Great Game India
Guadalajara Geopolitics
Helen Caldicott
Homeland Sec. Newswire
Human Events
I bank Coin
IEEE
IMPLODE-EXPLODE
Information Clearing House
Information Liberation
Infowars
Insider Paper
Intel News
Intercept, The
Jane's
Jay's Analysis
Jeff Rense
John Adams
John Pilger
John W. Whitehead
Jonathan Cook
Jon Rappoport
Jordan Schachtel
Just The News
Kevin Barret
Kitco
Last American Vagabond, The
Lew Rockwell
Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion
Libertarian Institute, The
Libertas Bella
LIBERTY BLITZKRIEG
LIBERTY Forcast
Liberty Unyielding
Market Oracle
Market Watch
Maryanne Demasi
Matt Taibbi
Medical Express
Media Monarchy
Mercola
Michael Snyder
Michael Tracey
Middle East Monitor
Mike "Mish" Shedlock
Military Info Tech
Mind Unleashed, The
Mint Press
MISES INSTITUTE
Mises Wire
MISH TALK
Money News
Moon of Alabama
Motherboard
My Budget 360
Naked Capitalism
Natural News
New American, The
New Eastern Outlook
News Deck
New World Next Week
Nicholas Creed
OF TWO MINDS
Off-Guardian
Oil Price
OPEN THE BOOKS
Organic Prepper, The
PANDEMIC: WAR ROOM
PETER SCHIFF
Phantom Report
Pierre Kory
Political Vigilante
Public Intelligence
Rair
Reclaim The Net
Revolver
Richard Dolan
Right Turn News
Rokfin
RTT News
Rutherford Institute
SAFEHAVEN
SAKER, The
Shadow Stats
SGT Report
Shadowproof
Slay News
Slog, The
SLOPE OF HOPE
Solari
South Front
Sovereign Man
Spacewar
spiked
SPOTGAMMA
Steve Kirsch
Steve Quayle
Strange Sounds
Strike The Root
Summit News
Survival Podcast, The
Tech Dirt
Technocracy News
Techno Fog
Terry Wahls, M.D.
TF METALS REPORT
THEMIS TRADING
Tom Renz
True Activist
unlimited hangout
UNREDACTED
Unreported Truths
Unz Review, The
VALUE WALK
Vigilant Citizen
Voltaire
Waking Times
Wall Street Journal
Wallstreet on Parade
Wayne Madsen
What Really Happened
Whitney Webb
winter oak
Wolf Street
Zero Hedge

National digital ID clears congressional hurdle amid fears it could be politically abused

Published: October 27, 2022 | Print Friendly and PDF
  Gab
Share

Anational digital ID system for U.S. citizens is fast becoming a reality following a vote by the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to advance the Improving Digital Identity Act

Although the concerns about digital IDs are real, it's important to separate the facts from the fearmongering fiction.

In simple language, a digital identity enables an individual to prove who they are in the virtual world. Proponents claim digital IDs offer greater privacy than traditional forms of identification and can help minimize some of the risks associated with physical documents such as driver's licenses, passports, etc. Others, though, are quick to sound the alarm, warning that the introduction of digital IDs will almost certainly lead to an erosion of civil liberties. 

"Digital is often touted as the 'future,' and many people cast such a transition as inevitable," writes Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the ACLU, who believes digital IDs could prove to be a privacy nightmare. "But digital is not always better — especially when systems are exclusively digital." 

"There’s a reason that most jurisdictions have spurned electronic voting in favor of paper ballots, for example," Stanley writes. With voting software in some states vulnerable to outside interference, paper ballots increasingly appear to be much safer.

Similarly, digital IDs are vulnerable to attack. Horror stories involving people's identities being stolen are not uncommon. Remember, digital IDs are synonymous with data, and if there is one thing hacker's love, it's data — especially the data of U.S. citizens

If digital identities are introduced in the U.S., which looks increasingly likely, they will be inextricably linked with financial services. Financial institutions, after all, are being encouraged to lead the way in the development of comprehensive digital identity solutions. Digital IDs, we're told, will become more critical as online and mobile banking becomes more popular. 

Recent headlines make it easy to see why so many people, fearful of the enforcement of political/ideological conformity through financial control, are hesitant to embrace digital IDs. 

The banking behemoth JP Morgan Chase recently cut ties with Kanye West, who now goes by the name Ye. While the bank's notification to him reportedly predates recent controversies involving the outspoken rapper and designer — he sported a White Lives Matter tee shirt and made remarks widely condemned as anti-Semitic — Ye appears to hold certain viewpoints that don't align with those held by the multinational's executives. 

Around the same time as Ye found himself being kicked to the curb, JP Morgan decided to freeze the bank account of the National Committee for Religious Freedom (NCRF), a nonpartisan nonprofit founded by former Kansas Republican Sen. Sam Brownback. Brownback, who served as ambassador-at-Large for international religious freedom in the Trump administration, was offered no explanation for why the account was frozen.

Meanwhile, it recently emerged that PayPal, an online payment system used by tens of millions of Americans, planned to fine users $2,500 in damages if they were found guilty of spreading "misinformation." Although PayPal has since reassured users that the policy won't be introduced, this reassurance came only after considerable backlash, including mass account cancellations by users and a sharp drop in the company's stock price. 

Earlier this year, GoFundMe, a for-profit crowdfunding platform headquartered in Redwood City, Calif., froze donations to Canadian truckers opposing Covid vaccine mandates. Shortly afterwards, Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, who reportedly favors digital ID, threatened to freeze the bank accounts of the truckers. 

The high probability of digital IDs being closely associated with access (or lack thereof) to finances and the growing link between ideological leanings and financial exclusion are fueling much of the resistance to digital identification.

But the concerns don't end there. Brett Solomon, the executive director of Access Now, an NGO that defends and extends the digital rights of users at risk around the world, argues that these IDs are ripe for abuse and that the threats of implementing them far outweigh the benefits.  

Citing his decade of experience tracking the perils and promise of technology for human rights, Solomon wrote in a 2018 Wired article that "digital ID, writ large, poses one of the gravest risks to human rights of any technology that we have encountered." 

Coupled with "facial recognition technology and other identifiers," Solomon warned, digital IDs have "the capacity for geo-location of identifiers." In other words, tracking citizens' every digital movement. 

Solomon's ominous warnings tie in with fears that someone, somewhere is always watching, and if Big Brother doesn't like what you're doing, punishment will surely be served — fears that have only been heightened by recent headlines.

TOP TRENDING ARTICLES


PLEASE DISABLE AD BLOCKER TO VIEW DISQUS COMMENTS

Ad Blocking software disables some of the functionality of our website, including our comments section for some browsers.


Trending Now



BlackListed News 2006-2023
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service