Digital identity with all your personal data? If it were up to the Netherlands and the EU, yes.

A digital identity, or Digital ID, to which all personal data is linked? Yes, governments and tech companies are advocating it. It is even already in the coalition agreement. But, scientists warn, "this is the end of freedom."

Research platform Follow The Money dove into the matter and published their findings last weekend in a 22-page study. The new coalition agreement, published yesterday, contains a similar message. "We give people their own online identity and control over their own data."

Coronapas was stepping stone to digital system

Because, the research shows, the Netherlands is a forerunner in creating a digital identity, called Digital ID or eID on paper. And that, according to privacy experts, is not too good when it comes to our anonymity and privacy protection.

According to Follow the Money's sources, there are quite a few in the piece, the coronapas has been the first step in this direction. The European Commission is already talking about a 'digital wallet', or payment system. The European Commission is also working on a so-called blockchain system. In this, data is not deleted. And all actions, transactions and movements of citizens are permanently stored.

The Netherlands leads the way with Digital ID

Our government in The Hague, the EU in Brussels and tech giants appear to be big supporters of the digitization of personal data. Among the companies involved you can think of Microsoft, Mastercard and Facebook. They appear to have a large share in the development of the eID. The Netherlands is the first European country to start working with this.

Where it is currently only about the QR code of the vaccination certificate, according to Follow the Money this will become more. The corona certificate was just the stepping stone. How that works? Citizens show their digital code (QR code) at governments, banks and companies. That code is linked to your name, date of birth and gender. But biomedical data through facial recognition is also used. With this, for example, your eye color, face shape and fingerprint is digitally registered.

The idea is that citizens own their own data and decide for themselves what they want to show. So when you go to the liquor store for a bottle of liquor, you only show your date of birth, not the other data. As the coalition agreement states: "Control over their own data". But privacy experts don't quite agree with that.
Linking digital ID to personal data

Supporters and proponents argue for a global system.

Follow the Money's research shows that the same organizations and companies that were involved in the development of the coronapas with QR code are now driving this system. Among others, the World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and a number of large companies are mentioned.

Besides registering your personal data, there is more. After all, what do you need that Digital ID for? How about opening a bank account, applying for a driver's license, voting, filing tax returns or applying for a loan. But also education or career are registered and even behavior on social media can be added.

Violation of privacy

But there are protests from scientists and experts when it comes to privacy. For example, professor of privacy and identity Bart Jacobs of Radboud University argues that large companies have wanted this for years. "Let's hitch a ride on the pandemic and come up with a solution where we have control. You understand where that's going," he argues.

The result? A surveillance state, or control state. And that, according to Jacobs, means the "end of freedom as we know it." Privacy First Foundation Director Vincent Böhre also notes that "the end of anonymity would be a disaster for journalists or activists. Especially in certain regions, it could be life-threatening." Böhre: "But actually, every citizen should be able to move anonymously in public spaces, to store, to express their opinion."

Strangulation through digital identity

A vaccination program thus appears to be a stepping stone to a digital identity. "Vaccination offers a great opportunity to give children a sustainable, portable and secure digital identity early in life," wrote think tank ID2020 on Medium. ID2020 is the most influential digital ID lobbyist. Their members include the Rockefeller Foundation, Microsoft, Mastercard and Facebook.
Follow the Money maps that privacy experts fear the coronapas will eventually lead to wider adoption of Digital ID.

Expert Paul Oude Luttighuis tells the research platform that the blockchain system will be barely adaptable if enough people participate. "That's how we're going to trap ourselves in an immutable social contract." And according to Oude Luttighuis, that will eventually become a strangulation contract. Can you get out of that? "Yes, but only at the cost of exile, abandonment of their legacy and perhaps the need to start such a new network all by yourself."

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