Some in the UK, Australia and elsewhere have opposed ID cards on privacy grounds, but it is not clear how the data on an ID card can be different from that stored in a passport or driving license. In my experience, a national identity card can provide more freedom.
Many countries that historically did not have a personal identity document form are now considering introducing identification cards, which differ from the identity card only in name, in order to document the person's status with regard to the "Covid-19" vaccine.
This position should be adopted by everyone, including privacy advocates. Instead of giving the government access to new data, this ID card allows the data stored in it to be used (and serve the citizen) more effectively.
E-governance (the use of communication technology to provide government services), which relies on a unified form of a national identity card, will greatly improve the means of providing public services to those who deserve them, whether in the areas of education, social care, or voting. To raise the level of accountability and transparency in the government.
Mere anxieties about civil liberties are a luxury that much of the world cannot afford. Even in the world's wealthiest countries, the poorest and most marginalized people face difficulties in accessing social welfare and other government services. But a single ID card would make that access go smoothly, as I've seen in Bangladesh, where I work as a policy advisor to the government.
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Our country's National Identity Card, issued in 2006, allows citizens of even the most isolated areas to have basic needs met, including access to healthcare, banking, land registry, tax records and education, all as part of From the electronic government whose tasks are focused on meeting the needs of the citizen.
This operation was essential in terms of providing social care to the 5 million Bangladeshis who have been pushed into poverty and deprivation by the pandemic. The ID cards allowed 5 million new bank accounts to be opened and funded, through payments made by the government as emergency relief loans, within ten days, while meeting the "know-your-customer" identity verification requirement.
It is troubling to see some policymakers define their national identity by opposing national ID cards, or by portraying it as a privacy issue, when almost every government (and many private companies as well) is already able access to private data of individuals.
Another criticism of ID cards is that such an identification document discriminates against those who refused to take the vaccine, or who were unable to receive it for health reasons. This should be respected, and other forms of health certificates such as testing or the presence of antibodies should be used.
There is no universal freedom. If a person had not taken a driving test (or was otherwise unable to drive a motor vehicle for health reasons), it would be unreasonable for him to claim that not being allowed to drive involved a violation of his civil rights.
Denmark, for example, which is one of the most “free” countries in the world, uses a digital system, which is a virus-specific passport called “CoronaPass”, which allows vaccinated holders to access places such as hair salons and bars. , and restaurants.
Indeed, a national identity card can make good government even better. Conversely, the lack of this identity card can provide easy excuses for bad governments to justify their incompetence. Another example of a unified national identity card that makes good governance possible is the card used in Estonia. This small country in the Baltic basin consistently outperforms the United States, as well as the United Kingdom, in terms of rankings on the Social Progress Index (issued by an American non-profit organization) of personal and political rights.
In Estonia, a digital identity card gives a citizen access to 99 percent of public services. The identity card of every citizen there contains a chip bearing basic information about its owner, in addition to his electronic signature. This card is used for everything from tax returns to voting to keeping track of school assignments. The government expects to have saved 800 years of bureaucratic labor (and possibly billions in taxes) thanks to its world-leading system of e-governance.
Perhaps the most important point in terms of introducing e-governance in Estonia is that the people support this system. As of 2012, 90 percent of the community there began to hold a national identity card, although it is not obligatory. In fact, Estonia is not a country inexperienced with authoritarian regimes. It was part of the former Soviet Union thirty years ago, and so on. It is one of the countries that has the right to be concerned about issues of privacy and civil liberties. However, e-government and the national identity card allow achieving good governance and an effective and transparent performance.
Estonia's cybersecurity system is keyless. It is of the type known as KSI, which means that access to all government services is automatic and public. As e-Estonia.com states, “History cannot be rewritten.” Such transparency should be welcomed, not objected to, elsewhere.
ID cards allow governments to easily access the data they need to do their job well. And while citizens of the free world willingly hand over valuable personal information to large, unelected tech companies, of course, in exchange for them effectively providing non-essential services, these citizens are increasingly willing to do the same for their governments when it comes to obtaining services they are in. Much needed.
Thus, the vaccine certificate could be the beginning of a new era of electronic governance that is transparent and effective, instead of being the end of the pandemic.
Anir Chaudhary is Policy Advisor for a2i, the Government of Bangladesh's flagship digital transformation programme, jointly implemented by the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology and the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs with technical support from UNDP.
*The Independent published this article in April 2021 and the issue of issuing health passports is still being discussed.