Whether everyone must have one is an entirely different debate.
Since I'm in the UK (grumble grumble Brexit) I haven't kept up that much despite being a Norwegian citizen, but in some countries at least this in theory IDs issued to certain standards by private actors. E.g. Norway has MinID (government issued), BankID (bank issued, also allows bank logins), Commfides and BuyPass, all of which issues id's that you can use to log in or sign with that tie your signature to the Norwegian national ID number.
Many of the countries makes extensive use of these IDs. E.g. in Norway you can log in to most government services with any of the recognised providers, and can sign contracts and even marriage licenses with them.
Interestingly Norway and Estonia appears to be the only two countries that have submitted more than one eID scheme to the European Commission for acceptance across the EEA, and interestingly for Norway both of them are privately provided; the (lower security) government run ID scheme has not been submitted:
https://ec.europa.eu/digital-building-blocks/wikis/display/E...
[1] https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-oauth-selective-d... [2] https://openid.net/specs/openid-4-verifiable-credential-issu... [3] https://www.w3.org/TR/vc-data-model-2.0/#what-is-a-verifiabl...
suspended from twitter? can't create another account cause you only have one id!
want to share something anonymously to avoid getting fired or investigated by feds? tough, you're required to sign in with your MyID to keep everyone safe!
the only way to prevent this is to not build it and vote out anyone who tries to create it.
government ruins and abuses everything it touches, we have a consistent pattern of behavior to go off here
we should actually be moving in the opposite direction.
i shouldn't have to prove i'm anyone basically ever, except for taxes and census.
not for planes or trains or buying liquor.
driving can be licensed but should be an "anonymous license", like "i'm driver #9238" not "i'm fred the licensed driver".
and those numbers ("driver number", ssn) should be barred from use as identification for any other purpose with massive penalties.
here's the moral reason why: forcing ID creates tools for administering punishment/"accountability", but it does this in advance of something being judged as wrongdoing. basically prior restraint on a mass scale. and when the government promulgates ID technologies it promulgates tools for this abuse of liberty.
No thank you. This sort of thing will eventually become compelled and made into a series of regulations in the name of "safety", etc.
> lurk in the shadows of the Internet via anonymity and good opsec.
This is a feature, not a bug. Anonymitity is extremely important for many people.
Negating this won't keep you anonymous, we're already being tracked at every possible avenue with profiles created on us the second we open a website or app. We can either tackle this head on by taking ID seriously online on our terms (necessary E2EE, full ID can never be accessed, it's not stored in a central database, etc), or we can let most corporations continue to trade our profiles around for funsies while acting like our pseudonyms will protect us.
How would you access a bank account anonymously?
How would you file your taxes anonymously?
Get an education? Acquire (legal) drugs? Buy a house? Travel abroad (and back again)?
Most countries have a way to provide identity to provide the above services. Passports are an internationally federated system, but there is no equivalent for digital signatures.
This is a problem when you want to study or work abroad, or receive pension from abroad, or any of a dozen other real world situations that regularly causes headaches for normal people.
But it should also be an option to engage in platforms where anonymous spammers, trolls, and criminals are not feasible, where reputation matters and some level of social integrity can be restored. And ideally without a secretive corporation exploiting your attention and data for their profits.
I promise you that this latter group (youths, "normies") is vastly larger than the group of people who actually need anonymity.
I just don't think that's true. Many people have opinions that will lead them to being attacked and cancelled, etc. There are groups of people ready to isolate and pounce on whoever they can so as to compel others to shut-up.
I get what you're saying but I don't agree that government has a place in regulating speech. People are free to join or leave platforms as they see fit.
The EU busybodies are not your friends.
You could just as easily have pointed to Ukraine or other Good Western Democracies countries that also have forms of digital citizenship.
Not all 'ideas' are 'good ideas'. Especially when governments only care about more control and once they do something unpopular, then they will abuse their 'emergency powers' to surveil, track and shutdown any unrest until the people comply. Even if it means freezing their bank accounts (and bypassing the banks) or shutting down ATMs to prevent cash withdrawals.
All possible with digital IDs and CBDCs.