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Comment by jwr | Hacker News Reader

This is a terrible idea. The last thing I want is for an advertising company that makes its living off personal data that they gather about me to be able to reliably link that data to my real identity.

I think that in general embedding legally-empowered digital IDs (in the form of certificates, not pictures of physical ID cards, mind you) in mobile phones is a good idea, but it ceases to be a good idea when your phone and your OS are made by an advertising company with clear incentives to gather data about you, and a solid history of doing so.

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They already have a payments platform and app store that requires a linking, which is more than adequate for highly targeted advertising.

I really think that civic engagement and petitioning law makers to protect our privacy is the main tool we have to get out of these impending messes.

You can use the app store without setting up payments.

You can't use the app store meaningfully without setting up payments.

Downloading free apps isn't meaningful?

Sure it is. I am convinced that a is temporary state too.

Enjoy while you can.

I would say, let Google develops the tech and figures out where are the blocking points, and then it could eventually become a standard and be implemented by other actors.

About making the technology reliable and secure, I do trust Google more than my bank.

Banks are the worst but they are in the game for centuries and there are thousands of laws and jurisprudence for banks. And mark my words, laws will be too little, too late. We need to stop the "move fast and break things" now, we should put ethics side by side with "because we can" otherwise people will suffer the.consequences

> We need to stop the "move fast and break things" now,

I understand your concerns, but I believe we should upgrade the Democratic system to give people more direct and more often opportunities to change the law rather than slow down technology progression

The reason we live in the economy and government today with such successful companies and people is because you can't change the law on a whim.

The predictable rate of change of laws is actually by design. It doesn't let a single government change everything.

Maybe, but I'm much more worried about what police and authorities will do when they can associate physical location with an ID card.

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