The bouncer saying I need to see your ID always rubbed me up the wrong way, not because I objected to being challenged but because they don’t need to know who I am, they just need to see proof of age. Not even that! Proof that my age is greater than or equal to X!
In a world where we would might actually see societal benefits in having people prove things about themselves*, could we not leverage technology to emit verifiable tokens that say “I have the right to work” and “my eyeballs have this shape and are this far apart”** without the world turning into 1984?
(I suppose with enough people there could still be a black market for token generators where you could feasibly buy one that matched a subset of your biometrics.)
* Illegals have the potential to be exploited just as much they themselves can be exploitative. It goes both ways.
** Is it possible to have biometrics that can be verified against my physical presence, but which can’t be used to identify me in a crowd?
That is what digital IDs usually do: the website requests the smallest amount of information they need, you decide to grant it, and only that gets sent. And at least in my country you also have a physical card, so if you really don't want to grant anything via the internet (or find their request is too broad) you can just do whatever process it is in person.
What if sites start to request more information than they need because why not? If you don't give it, you don't get access, and you want access. What incentive do they have for requesting less information?
If the existing situation with website registrations, required ID uploads for social media, signing in with Google/Apple/Microsoft, etc. is to go by, the majority of people don't mind giving out nearly anything about them when asked for it by someone who seems trustworthy at a brief glance.
Well, to be fair, many many clubs nowadays operate a sharing policy so that if you're banned from a one venue in a city others won't let you in either. It's part of the terms of going in, if you don't agree to it, you don't have to have access.
In a world where we would might actually see societal benefits in having people prove things about themselves*, could we not leverage technology to emit verifiable tokens that say “I have the right to work” and “my eyeballs have this shape and are this far apart”** without the world turning into 1984?
(I suppose with enough people there could still be a black market for token generators where you could feasibly buy one that matched a subset of your biometrics.)
* Illegals have the potential to be exploited just as much they themselves can be exploitative. It goes both ways.
** Is it possible to have biometrics that can be verified against my physical presence, but which can’t be used to identify me in a crowd?