The UN has launched several pilot projects that use digital IDs for refugee identification. Such ideas can quickly become reality on a national level, too: China’s Social Credit System, for example, makes use of digital IDs. In global e-commerce, a digital ID is assigned to people – and used to score each customer’s profitability and lifetime value.
But, once a digital ID officially exists, the implications for democracy and human rights could be massive. This concern is particularly strong when digital IDs are coupled with the power of a data-driven and AI-controlled approach. Then, human beings could be managed like objects, which would be a fundamental violation of human dignity and the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
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