While not immediately obvious, COVID-19 is a catalyst for Digital Identity. The most obvious impact, while fraught with ethical issues, is the need to monitor health status as we return to economic activity during the pandemic. This process could require citizens to carry “Covid Credentials,” and eventually face biometrics which are essentially digital IDs tied to health data.
Digital identity can be broken down into two distinct aspects. The first is the fact of being who or what a person or thing is. This is referred to as foundational identity and is generally indicated by credentials: legal name, passport, national Insurance Number and other officially issued forms of qualification.
The second aspect of identity can be defined as the characteristics determining who or what a person or thing is and is largely comprised of attributes: email address, likes, follows, purchases, etc. This aspect of identity can be referred to as functional identity and is less reliant on the physical world since these attributes are not usually verified by a third-party and can be established entirely via one’s online behaviour. Thus, functional identity is inextricably tied to data.
The fundamental difference between digital identity and a health pass is that health passes prove a health status, whereas digital identity proves that “I am who I say I am”. There are multiple potential types of health pass, but they all generally have the same purpose.
People are right to draw attention to the potential parallels between digital identity and health passes. Both connect with public service infrastructures; both include some form of biometric authentication to access ID or health pass. Health passes specifically connect to public health data sets, whereas a digital identity would be interoperable across all public services in a single sign-on function.
Digital identity seeks to verify a person who is who they say they are, whereas health passes seek to prove a person has been vaccinated and/or tested. A health pass could be used as a mobility credential in certain contexts whereas digital identity could do also. There is a massive overlap, and the goal is to combine them.
Unpopular opinion alert.
I chair lots of international events on digital transformation, vaccine passports, data management etc. Digital IDs are widely used around the world, widely accepted and can bring significant benefits.
It’s a matter of time. #marr
— Siobhan Benita 🇺🇦🌻 (@SiobhanBenita) June 6, 2021
Our NHS login is technically a form of functional digital identity as it allows individuals to sign on to NHS digital services, enabling them to prove their identity once, and in a manner that is convenient to them. They can then use their NHS login for other NHS services. So, the vaccine passport element is linked into your NHS Digital Identity, a deliberate attempt to join up to other key government services later.
Vaccine passports are clearly an integral part of that surveillance apparatus, and a precursor to a Westurn social credit system.
A good example is this, the company behind ‘List Me’ (which is a digital ID, social networking, and events app all in one) have released a promotional video about the ‘COVID passport’ feature within their own app.
Many digital id apps like this will cross check and reference private health data sets to confirm your vaccine status putting it on public display and as soon as this expires, your rights and freedoms will dissolve.
Apple has also announced an update to its digital ID Wallet app that will allow you to use your iPhone as digital identification in select US airports. The company showed how you will be able to scan your driver’s license or state ID in participating US states. The company says it is working with the TSA to enable the iPhone to be used as identification at airport security checkpoints. As well as secure ID, Apple says it is working to allow hotels to distribute room card keys via Apple Wallet, allowing you to collect a room key before you arrive at a hotel. Home keys and work keys were also announced as coming to the Wallet app. We are certain that health certificates could also be loaded into your Apple identity wallet.
Apple’s work with airlines, governments, and everyone else inevitably means your iPhone and Apple Watch will become your driving license. Apple has now confirmed it will also become your COVID-19 vaccine passport.
In terms of live events, there is still a push for domestic style vaccine passports being facilitated by using the NHS App. The Majority of Sheffield United fans would support ‘Vaccine Passports’ if they meant a return to Bramall Lane, of course they would!
Vaccine Passport will also be a requirement for the upcoming Euro Wembley Stadium Entry: England’s group stage matches will be the first time that vaccine passports are used for sporting events in the UK. ‘Proof of negative LFT demonstrated via text message or email from NHS Test & Trace. Or proof of full vaccination, both doses received at least 14 days prior to the match via the NHS App.’
And also announced: Wimbledon chiefs hope that vaccine passports will allow them to double the amount of available tickets each day to 20,000.
The Good Health Interoperability Blueprint draft is now available. – The Good Health Pass Interoperability Blueprint proposes a comprehensive standard for all these digital health passes, which will enable compliant passes to be universally recognized and accepted by airlines, airports, hotels, and border control agencies around the world, thus creating a trusted, convenient, and seamless travel experience.
It says: “Health pass providers may need to support facial biometric binding to the individual where the technology requirements allow to include those without provable identity,”
And “The standards proposed in the Interoperability Blueprint will make it possible for health pass systems to be interoperable, creating a trusted, seamless experience for travellers, airlines, airports, & border control agencies” – ID2020 Dakota Gruener has said.
This is the global interoperable system which Tony Blair described on the recent Andrew Marr show.
"I remain even more convinced today, particularly with #biometric technology. The world will move to #biometric ID, and they will do it because in the end, it is better for people." – Tony Blair pic.twitter.com/KUkRn6ST60
— Sikh For Truth (@SikhForTruth) June 6, 2021
“I remain even more convinced today, particularly with biometric technology. The world will move to biometric ID, and they will do it because in the end, it is better for people.” – Tony Blair said.
A large portion of the global population may soon be equipped with a biometric digital wallet’s that holds their unique digital identity and digital assets (i.e., health certificates.)
The Canada Border Services Agency is establishing an ‘Office of Biometrics and Identity Management’ to develop “digital solutions” after advisory panel recommended creating system to “validate proof of vaccination”. Things are certainly hotting up now for the global rollout or biometric ID’s.
Digital identity is a key enabler of the move towards cashless societies, accelerated by the pandemic given the need to quickly and accurately distribute funds and the desire to avoid physical currency. It is important to realize that vaccine passports or any other type of certification in and of themselves are not the end goal here. They are merely a part of a much larger plan to implement a social credit system and social impact system. But first, they would be expanded to cover other required vaccinations.
So what’s next? Booster shots against COVID-19 variants would logically come first, followed by any number of other vaccinations. The sky’s the limit as far as that is concerned, and many are likely to be DNA gene-based and therefore dangerous in the extreme. Already, vaccine makers have announced they are working on a combination COVID-flu/mRNA vaccines.
Vaccine passports discriminate. “Of course, that is what they are designed to do. But in addition to creating a division between those who have the passport and those who do not, they are likely to reinforce and reproduce existing group inequalities,” – Professor John Drury.
“The introduction of domestic vaccine passports will lead to a two-tier society where ethnic minorities are disproportionately discriminated against”, Maajid Nawaz fears. He is not wrong there.
Ultimately, the vaccine passport will expand to include not just vaccination status but also other medical data, basic identification records, financial data and just about anything else that can be digitized and tracked. It may even extend to include real-time biological data, IOB. And we have already started to see this.
Also, the Linux Foundation Public Health (LFPH) announced the launch of the Global COVID Certificate Network (GCCN) to facilitate the safe and free movement of individuals globally during the COVID pandemic. GCCN will establish a global trust registry network that enables interoperable and trustworthy exchanges of COVID certificates among countries for safe reopening and provide related technology and guidance for implementation.
The end goal is to end freedom as we know it, using a social credit system to ensure compliance. If you disobey or act out of line with a prevailing dictate, your freedom to travel, bank, shop, get a loan or even leave your home could be vastly restricted. While the Chinese social credit score is still in its infancy, eventually, the plan is to use it to search for signs of potentially harmful behaviour before it occurs, in other words, a real-world pre-crime type of situation as illustrated in the movie Minority Report. This is what vaccine passports can lead to, and there is every reason to believe that this is the plan.
https://twitter.com/Philly852/status/1402238725422256130?s=20
EU wise, the plan has already been announced to fold the European Digital Covid Certificate into the new upcoming European digital identity wallet.
There is a very good reason why, Naomi wolf was kicked off from Twitter, she was a high profile advocate against the use of vaccine passports and the associated surveillance tech.
She warned about this in March 2021:
“I’m [the] CEO of a tech company, I understand what these platforms can do. It is not about the vaccine, it is not about the virus, it is about your data … What people must understand is that any other functionality can be loaded onto that platform with no problem at all. It can be merged with your PayPal account, with your digital currency.
Microsoft is already talking about merging it with payment plans. Your network can be sucked up. It geolocates you everywhere you go. Your credit history can be included. All your medical and health history can be included …
It is so much more than a vaccine pass … I cannot stress enough that it has the power to turn off your life, or to turn on your life, to let you engage in society or be marginalized.”
When you live on the ledger, your life is controlled by the tokens you have in your blockchain wallet.
Digital identity. Once adopted, will be a sea change. At that point, each person will be transformed into a digitally branded commodity available for speculative trade (based on social / reputational scoring) in the global marketplace. That is the reality of what is being built right before our eyes, and yet so few people see it for what it is. Social credit and a social impacting platforms are the end goals of vaccine passports and digital identities.
