The dystopian danger of a mandatory biometric database in Mexico | Hacker News Reader

The dystopian danger of a mandatory biometric database in Mexico

restofworld.org

The problem is that it wouldn't even solve the problem they have with organized crime in the slightest.

> international agencies

That would be the UN and specifically the world bank. Just so you know.

The bank was founded to finance rebuilding after WWII. But organization like this never close...

Of course the countries that pay the most have the most influence, but if people really are against colonization, you should start with the people here or in Washington specifically.

National ID systems are a core component of effectively delivering services to citizens as well as keeping track of governmenty things (taxes, work authorization, residency, etc). Roughly 100 countries (a majority out of 195) have compulsory ID systems [1]. In the US, your social security number is effectively your national ID due to unfortunate function creep (which will hopefully be fixed one day when there is more sanity than those who argue a national ID is the “mark of the beast” or similar nonsense).

Concern about data governance and oversight are extremely valid critiques, arguing against such systems in a country’s journey from developing to developed less so. And if someone is offering hundreds of millions of dollars in loans to build developed world infrastructure, depending on terms and conditions, you might strongly consider accepting it.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_identity_card...

Only recently countries extended that to include biometric data without any discernible benefit.

The core of the criticism is that it goes beyond having a government ID. Yes, Europe sadly also collects biometric data by now. They also cannot be trusted to handle such data.

Even while there is no central database of fingerprints, they created many instances where this data can be leaked. Again, there is no benefit to collect this data.

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