Digital World
World in Progress: Digital identity
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Hundreds of millions of people across the world don't have an identity card, a birth ceritificate, a passport. That's a huge problem, whether they need to see a doctor, go to school or become refugees. So what if we could prove who we are - just by having our faces or eyes scanned? Traveling across borders - without having to wait?
Plans and tests for this kind of transnational identity already exist. But what if everything about us - who we are, what we like, whether we pay our parking tickets, which diseases we've had - is stored forever in a blockchain? What if that data is used to manipulate and pressure us? Thomas Kruchem explores the possibilties and dangers of digital identities and mass surveillance.