The global infrastructure of digital ID is being built right now - and nobody voted for it - Silicon Canals

"What I walked through wasn't just an immigration gate. It was a node in a rapidly expanding global infrastructure of digital identity, one being constructed at extraordinary speed, across dozens of countries, by a mix of governments, multilateral organizations, and private technology vendors. The people building it believe they are solving real problems: fraud, statelessness, inefficient public services, financial exclusion."

"The architecture they're constructing to solve those problems will reshape the relationship between individuals and states for generations. And the defining feature of this transformation is that almost none of it has been subject to meaningful democratic deliberation."

A biometric immigration gate at Changi Airport exemplifies a broader transformation occurring globally. Governments, multilateral organizations, and private technology vendors are building interconnected digital identity systems at unprecedented speed across dozens of countries. Systems like India's Aadhaar (1.3 billion enrolled), Estonia's e-Residency, and the EU's Digital Identity Wallet represent this expansion. While these systems address legitimate problems including fraud, statelessness, inefficient services, and financial exclusion, their architecture will fundamentally alter relationships between individuals and states for generations. The critical concern is that this massive infrastructure development has proceeded largely without public democratic input or meaningful deliberation about its implications.

Read at Silicon Canals