Australia, Britain, and Canada are beginning to set up a "Server in the Sky". This server is a network for sharing biometric information on criminals and terror suspects. The group that would run the server is the International Information Consortium. They say a global biometric clearing house would help nations combat terrorism and rapidly identify victims in major disasters. This kind of digital id would definitely help in a crisis situation because computers act fast and they have less error rates than humans.
Some would argue that this kind of id is also an invasion of privacy. Who wants to have their personal information in a computer some where and who knows who is looking at it, but let us think about where we put other kinds of personal information... What about facebook? People write all sorts of things and complete strangers can have access to that information. Strangers could find us through information on our facebook pages almost as easily as our passport information.
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I get your point, but don't you think that why we are ok with our information being available on facebook is because we control it? Ultimately we can determine what photos, information, posts etc different people can see. We can make it private, give restricted access, or open it up to everyone. If everyone could always see all of it, and I had no control, I can guarantee I would not have a facebook.
ReplyDeleteI think the problem with the digital I.D.'s being available to mainly governmental agencies is that as individuals we would have no power to control it, and so much of the digital age now is about controlling our information and what we allow others to see. I don't really see facebook and my passport information as being on the same level, and even if I personally was able to choose to share my passport information, why would I? For safety? I'm not going to do anything bad so why does it matter if I am included (I know that the government can't know that), but on a personal level I don't have motivation for my privacy to be invaded.
Overall though, I don't disagree that having digital ID's could make things safer, I just think that it's important to note that personal choice (and individual creation) is what separates Facebook from the ID's you are talking about.
I agree with most of what you say, but I never said the ids would be controlled by the government. It should be privatized.
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