[phatfish]

Doesn't everyone have a digital ID already?

My passport has biometrics, the government knows everything about me already through the tax system which is "digital". All my other interactions with the government are through digital services.

What exactly would a digital ID allow a government to do that it can't already? Apart from solve all the issues with having to provide scans of (my already digital) ID documents to every bank/solicitor/mortgage broker/estate agent/etc i interact with, where in many my personal ID documents probably sit on a company file share or some random persons One Drive.

A government digital ID with a one-time code to complete verification would solve all of this nonsense.

On control, again, what possible super power would a "digital ID" give a government that it doesn’t have already to control you?

[uyzstvqs]

Digital ID to interact with government services is great. It becomes a problem when they add something like OpenID4VC to it, with the intention of linking it to all your online activity for "age verification". This would create one giant government metadata silo on every individual's online activity.

[phatfish]

Like the real world there a services online that need age verification, unless we want kids to continue to be exploited by social media and freely access porn.

We aren't living with the internet of the 90's any more, it's now owned by corporations and bad actors. Yes, i know it's impossible to stop those that are determined to circumvent restrictions (just as can happen with alcohol or movies) but clear restrictions give parents that want to do the right thing cover when setting rules in their own family.

In the end society raises children not just individual parents, and society need to take some responsibility too.

Personally i don't see how an API call to complete a government ID verification could be used to create a giant "metadata silo", unless the companies using the API are voluntarily sending more data than some sort of one-time challenge token. If the companies are coerced into feeding the government with your account activity history, what is stopping the government forcing that to happen now without bothering to draw attention via a digital ID?

[rglynn]

I'm not sure where you live but a lot of countries don't have this (yet) or it is optional.

[xinayder]

Restricting content you access, or using that to shape what is offered to you on the internet.

[jasonvorhe]

Debank you for wrong speak or think, leaving you with no alternatives. The more cuntries implement digital id, the more they'll sync with each other, making life more and more miserable for anyone who doesn't want to go along with whatever nonsense is currently being pushed as the new thing.