Certification of Vaccine ID is leading to global digital health credential code with the use of biometric access and control systems on the rise. But why? It is to enhance the customer journey, to track in real-time our health data. Or is it just part of a jigsaw?
It was on 24.04.2020, when Tony Blair’s Institute for Global Change announced: “A digital credential – perhaps biometrically secured and stored on a person’s smartphone – may be the best way for people to be able to carry secure, verifiable proof of their status without leaking other personal information”
And that we must “Develop a digital credential to assist the selective lifting of restrictions. A secure digital credential is harder to forge and faster to distribute than paper certificates. There must be a practical alternative and no discrimination for people who do not have a smartphone.”
And last December, the UK Government released its 2025 border strategy policy paper, to improve national security and biosecurity, while the Biometrics & Forensics Ethics Group says collaborations on biometric technologies between the public private sectors are likely to increase.
In this document: I quote:
“The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the importance of ensuring that passenger travel is as resilient as possible. Developing processes that are less reliant on personal contact and interaction may be key to this”.
“Work with industry to develop a proof of concept for a contactless travel model for UK citizens based on Biometric E-Passport technology.
In the longer-term this model could allow for faster movement of UK citizens across the border with a greatly reduced risk of fraud.”
“Delivering a fully contactless model may also be an important health protection measure, allowing UK ports to protect their customers and provide more resilience of the travel industry to global health threats.”
And: “The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the importance of ensuring that passenger travel is as resilient as possible. Developing processes that are less reliant on personal contact and interaction may be key to this”.
For this new touchless future, the key provisions are contactless travel based on a digitized border, e-Passports, and biometric data as sole authentication requirements for all future cross-border travel. It says “Contactless biometrics momentum is now building for access control in airports and connected digital health wallets.”
This biometric passport technology is promised to streamline the movement of UK citizens across the border and significantly to reduce the risk of identity fraud. Digital ID’s privacy by design moment will come from these new digital immunity and digital passport standards.
These Covid Passports are ‘Digital Identity’ systems at their core and for the age of Industry 4.0 which ties back into the World Economic Forum’s ‘Known Traveller Digital Identity‘ system.
We see the global agenda being played out, but no one is sure as to what ends, we can speculate for its future uses, possibly many, while looking to China as the blueprint.
We know ID2020 are working towards the UN sustainable development goal, the UN recognizes identity as a fundamental human right and has included “providing legal identity for all, including birth registration, by 2030” as one of its Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 16.9).
That idea—of an ever-expanding, all-knowing surveillance platform and needing more and more data about us, about our health choices, good or bad and to use AI behavioural insights to home in on personalised micro services is seen as the next future trends.
Now with the Good Health Pass Collaborative made up of ID2020, Evernym, Mastercard, Airport Council (ACI), My Common Pass, The Covid Credential Initiative, Hyperledger, IBM & Linux Health Foundation these new digital identity systems are growing for complete global interoperability.
The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change a Non-profit think tank, have said “that such systems are not merely being designed to open holidays but it’s also about business travel and freight. And it’s about improving levels of confidence in going back to the workplace.”
It’s also about “Travelling on public transport, joining events with large crowds. Most of all, seeing loved ones, especially those who may be among the most vulnerable to COVID-19.”
Their global solution is one based on digital health identity technologies. We are being told over and over and it is becoming daily now, that there is no prospect of a return to anything like normal without enabling people to show their COVID-19 status. That COVID-19 vaccine passports are “Inevitable at home and abroad”.
The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change says, ‘Call it a passport, a certificate or proof of status – We will want to know.’ Well we are calling it a ‘Global Digital Health Code’ (Modelled on China) or a ‘One World Digital Identity.’
This dystopian future is fast ushering in a Covid 19-84 nightmare of restricted access. The most important colours will be ‘red, amber or green’ on our new digital ‘Health Passes.’ And this will determine what we can and what we cannot do in this post covid ‘New Normal.’
Eventually they would want to move away from apps and forward with biometric surveillance systems without the use of mobile apps, the mobile apps are just a pre cursor step needed to get everyone on board.
We all have a collective sense of unease about this whole subject, a feeling that we are being constantly manipulated, exploited, and mined for our wealth-producing data. And we need to think about, if this is the type of future we want for our children.
This fusion technology which eviscerates all spaces will be able to track our digital and health footprints everywhere we go, and once scattered, would become a single uninterrupted digital life history permanently marked on the blockchain, leaving not only our enemies, but also our friends with nowhere to hide. Where do you stand?
