Across various states, a new technological advancement allows Americans to replace their physical wallets. A simple tap of their device on a scanner streamlines identity verification. Apple Pay and Google Wallet have made checking out at the grocery store and gas station so convenient, but is the convenience of commerce something we need in our interaction with government? Any facilitation of following Americans digitally is seemingly unnecessary — we know that from our Ring doorbell cameras to Alexa to red-light cameras to our smartphones, the federal government has its eyes on most of us most of the time.
With that in mind, though, wouldn’t the efficiency of a digital ID be worth the slight increase in potential tracking by the federal and state governments, given the already immeasurable scope of the surveillance?
No.
Here’s the problem. Digital IDs, such as those being issued as driver’s licenses in many states, do make it easy for the grocery store clerk to quickly verify your age, but that verification is instantaneously accomplished by pulling your personal data — age, in this example — off of a government server. That government server, then, knows exactly where you are, when you are there, and for what purpose you requested its data.
While this may seem inconsequential given the many other ways Big Brother has of locating you, there are yet places where most transactions are analog and there is no real-time tracking of your location and your reason for being wherever you are.
Not with digital ID, however. Because the data stored on that little chip is stored on government servers, in exchange for the ease of use, the government requires that the establishment offering you the convenience of using your digital ID give the government critical data about you. Here’s an example from an article published recently by Reason.com:
Colorodans [sic] can simply show their digital ID to verify their identity in much the same way as you would show your driver’s license to a bartender to prove you are over 21. That means of verifying identity is relatively private. However, many services, both public and private, are increasingly turning to electronic verification, which requires pinging a government server. This ping creates a data record outlining who, what, when, and where. Over time, these records create a government-controlled ledger of information about its citizens.
Built and maintained by third-party vendors, Colorado Digital ID collects troves of information from users. As outlined in the privacy policy for myColorado, the app collects data “including, but not limited to your IP address, device ID and browser type,” and information on the “general geographic area” of the user. The privacy policy further details that the government shares information with third-party service providers and, much more concerningly, with law enforcement and other government agencies upon request.
And there in those last couple of sentences is revealed an even more ominous aspect of the network of data being transferred silently and suddenly between business and government.
The issue isn’t that the government is able to keep a dossier on your frequent movements, purchases, preferences, schedule, companions, etc., but that the government offers that data to other entities, entities such as law enforcement, which without that data-sharing agreement with the government agencies that collect the data, would be unable to keep such a short leash on citizens.
And, remember, that’s what we are: citizens. We are not subjects, we are sovereigns. The government does not grant us liberty — we grant it power, and that power may be reclaimed from government when we, the people, believe that the government we created no longer protects our life, liberty, and property, but begins harming or threatening to harm those precious inheritances.
Digital IDs, as with anything else, could work just fine if government were cut out of the transaction. Companies and clients/customers could enter into contracts preventing any data shared between them from being stored on servers to which the government — any government — has access. Such IDs could make many transactions smoother and faster, but not without secure firewalls stiff-arming government’s attempts to intercept the exchange of data.
Admittedly, the scope and secrecy of government surveillance makes any attempt to keep digital IDs beyond the reach of the regime difficult and dicey.
For decades, governments have reduced states to mere provinces of the empire by offering billions of dollars in “grants” or “aid” to cash-strapped states in exchange for submission to federal demands. In the case of trying to privatize digital IDs, the company that is offering the guarantee of a government-free transaction, for example, needs a license from the state to conduct business. The state, for its part, relies on federal largesse for this or that infrastructure improvement, so in order to qualify for those funds, the state agrees to withhold licenses from those businesses that won’t lower the data drawbridge for the forces of the federal government. See?
What, then, is the remedy for the disease of federal extortion? The rightful remedy: nullification.
Citizens must seek out and elect candidates committed to rebuilding the walls of sovereignty around the states. The states created the federal government and are the source of all its powers. State legislators and governors need only refuse to enforce any and all unconstitutional acts, orders, edicts, and regulations that come out of Washington, D.C. This completely constitutional and completely accomplishable act on the part of state governments would restore the republican form of government each state was guaranteed in Article IV of the U.S. Constitution, as well as restore to its citizens the security from tyranny the states were meant to provide in our federal union.
Rather than relying on licenses and permits and other forms of royal accession, Americans should work to restore a true free-market economy where entrepreneurs have greater incentive to innovate — in the area of digital IDs, for example — without having to play ball with Big Brother.
