Good IDs gone Bad: Why Digital IDs Are Not All They’re Cracked Up to Be
By: Neema Iyer
Tags: Technology, Civictech, Africa, Podcast, Digital Id

Good IDs gone Bad: Why Digital IDs Are Not All They’re Cracked Up to Be

This blog is part of the Terms and Conditions Podcast, produced by Berhan Taye and I. Listen to this episode here. I asked Berhan true or false questions on common myths and misconceptions around digital IDs, especially in the African context.

Debates about digital IDs have become ubiquitous on social media, whether it’s the World Bank expounding on how they will revolutionize banking for the unbanked or think-tank Engine Room showing the negative impacts through participatory research.

On a research mission to Northern Ethiopia, Berhan experienced first-hand how the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) coerced Eritrean refugees to provide biometric information without true consent, or else risk receiving life saving rations or access to healthcare. It is not unheard of for refugees fleeing to Europe to burn their fingers to prevent being tracked within the system.

So, what exactly is a Digital ID?

Digital identity, is the digital representation of an entity detailed enough to make the individual distinguishable within a digital context. It is understood to contain the twin components of Identification (who are you) and Authentication (you are who you say you are).

A digital identity system can have different components (1)

Foundational — which means you have to provide evidence that you are who you say you are mostly through using traditional IDs like birth certificates, passport, and other foundational documents

— which means you have to provide evidence that you are who you say you are mostly through using traditional IDs like birth certificates, passport, and other foundational documents Functional — you get that specific identity for a certain purpose — for instance, you health card, residency permit and other documents — however, this is most of the time issues only when you have met the foundational requirements

— you get that specific identity for a certain purpose — for instance, you health card, residency permit and other documents — however, this is most of the time issues only when you have met the foundational requirements Transactional — is often used for financial transactions.

Here are some real-world examples:

In recent years, many governments, including India, Kenya, Jamaica, and others, have been striving to create centralized national identification databases.

These national identification systems collect different data points: for instance, Kenya, among other things, collects names, marital status, fingerprints, and other bio-data and at times had attempted to collect geolocation of residents, while the Indian Aadhaar system collects fingerprints and iris images.

Like the systems and what they collected, the legality of these national ID systems is contested: India’s Supreme Court upheld the government’s use of the Aadhaar to provide subsidies and benefits. Kenya’s National Integrated Identity Management System (NIIMS), also known as Huduma Namab, is currently in the appeals court and Jamaica’s National Identification and Registration Act (NIRA) is the only national ID system that has been ruled unconstitutional because it mandates mandatory biometric collection. So, this tells you that the digital ID conversation is contested and not everyone agrees on what the system should do and how it should be rolled out and even if we need digital ID programs.

What about the obvious benefits of digital IDs?

Proponents of these ID systems often argue that the national identification systems that integrate biometrics to identify and verify individuals will facilitate financial inclusion, reduce child labor, increase access to essential health and education, and reduce transaction costs among others. (3)

While politically correct, context always matters and we haven’t yet seen the promised benefits of digital ID systems. Child labour exists because there aren’t enough protections to shield children from poverty and exploitation. Women may be unbanked because they do not have money, not because of the lack of accessible banks. Many women also used local saving groups, which are less predatory and more communal than traditional banks. The issues here have nothing to do with technosolutionism and more to do with societal infrastructure.

Let’s take the conversation further.

People need digital IDs because they don’t have legal identity or any other forms of ID. True or false?

It’s not always true and the failure is that the proponents of digital identity keep telling us that people need digital identity because they don’t have any form of ID. However, in reality, that’s not always the case. If we look at India, the phenomenal book Dissent on Aadhaar, explained that at least 90% of Indians that registered for a Aadhaar had at least one, two, or three forms of IDs (2). So the argument that people need digital identity because they don’t have IDs doesn’t hold water.

Whether in India, Kenya, or Estonia, you need some form of ID to register for a digital ID.

The actual problem is that when governments make digital IDs mandatory for all other government and private sector services, people that are often denied legal identity and those that are unable to get their birth certificates or communities living far away from the central government are denied essential services. This in turn actually discriminates against and further marginalizes vulnerable communities, achieving the exact opposite of what digital ID proponents promise.

We need to know “Who is us and who is not us”? Who is Kenyan, who is not? Who is Indian, who is not? Humans have always moved and migrated, and even nationality can be more fluid. Digital IDs help to create a single source of truth for all issues related to identity? True or False?

Even though national ID systems collect different things, they all seek to gather and store biometrics to identify and verify their citizens and lawful residents. (4)

Depending on the kind of system, yes, they can be a single source of truth, but the reality is that they will also be a single source of failure in many ways. So what I mean with that is that the IT system, the protocol, and everything around where these centralized data systems are stored is an important conversation we should all have.

For instance, if you have used any banking system in Ethiopia, you know the phrase system yelem, which basically means the system doesn’t work and that you won’t be able to access your money.

So, when it comes to accessing essential government services, it becomes more dangerous to base the whole social service system on a single database

In India, a database that had information about 2 million women’s reproductive health was leaked and became publicly accessible, including their Adhard and mobile numbers. The government was tracking their reproductive history under a portal called the “Mother and Child Tracking System” through household surveys to study mortality, and these details such as whether they had had abortions, births, and the infants early years were all made available, and now these pages are indexed by search engines, so anyone can search against a name/village to get this information. Once public, how do you make sensitive information private?

Bottom line is, you can’t! Systems fail — so empty statements like we have a “good IT system” don’t work.

All you need before you roll out digital ID programs is a good data protection law. True or False?

We see a lot of funders that are pushing for this — data protection law is good to have, but it doesn’t guarantee anything unless it’s implemented. You need to have strong Data Protection Acts and you need to develop that culture that scrutinizes infringements of these laws. You can have the best data protection law, but if the system that used to store is poorly secured, if you don’t have honest conversations with your citizens about the need for digital ID programs, a good data protection law won’t save you from a bad digital ID program.

The digital ID space is complex and growing. There are multiple litigations against digital ID systems around the world, and an urgent need to investigate the vendors, the vulture capitalist, the middle men, the surveillance structures that promote digital ID programs, and consent and vulnerable groups.

Join us over at Terms and Conditions as we uncover these truths and how they affect people across Africa. To access this episode on digital IDs, click here.

Notes:

(1) Access Now — National Identity Managment https://www.accessnow.org/cms/assets/uploads/2019/11/Digital-Identity-Paper-Nov-2019.pdf

(2) Reetika K, 2019. Dissent on Aadhaar: Big Data Meets Big Brother.

(3) World Bank. 2019. ID4D Practitioner Guide Draft for Consultation.

(4) Aggarwal, N, Ben-Hassine, W, & Chima, R. 2018. National Digital Identity Programmes: What’s Next?. Access Now.