EU agrees to introduce eID ignoring privacy concerns
twitter.com
twitter.com
https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-...
I'm not sure what to think about this strategy.
On one hand they do seem to be trying to put together a unified coherent system.
On the other there's a lot of experts saying they're making a hash of it.
That is a really privacy nightmare.
It starts with the government's own services but random third party operators are not ruled out, this is a fundamental building block for an "internet access pass" for all but the most niche sites like this one.
Right now Facebook only asks for ID in case of obvious fake names, because it's a huge barrier to ask people to send theirs just to create an account. This should remain a barrier.
It seems like an EU backed cryptocurrency, that could be implemented like monero and be fairly private or like bitcoin with public ledger,
It could also be like credit/debit cards which are already used everywhere...
I'm not looking forward to my purchases being declined because I ate too much beef already, travelled too much, or was caught demonstrating next to people the state does not like.
You're just replacing who controls the currency in the end.
Aslo, try and make a large cash deposit somewhere and see how many questionaires you have to fill in.
Control over cash payments us already a reality.
Jerome, is that you?
Not speaking for the person you asked. My cards are not directly controlled by the state however Visa and Mastercard share all the sales with my government that wants to know how many firearms people buy, how much ammunition and how often it is purchased. [1] I honestly do not know what they do with the data as they haven't intervened in any of the tragic events of late. Anyway that is why I stick with cash and avoid buying things online when I can get them locally. No need for Uncle Sam to keep track of my purchases of inflatable sheep and Velcro mittens which I have no doubt have a special category.
[1] - https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2022/09/behind-the-decis...
The way to defeat that is to vote/get involved/move to countries that are free.
Right now, your scenario is entirely plausible but is not reality, why?
The digital currency just moves power from private entities (visa/mastercard) to governments. Visa/mastercard are actually banning payments already to things like porn and so on, perhaps digital currency will have less moral policing, perhaps it will be anonymous, i havent found any technical details yet
They already have that control via Visa/Mastercard, banks, limits on max amount of cash for transactions, limits on inter state travel with large amounts of cash, and so on... and the world is not authoritarian in the west. In the east it is, and they still have cash.
Voting for wrong people leads to authoritarianism... Or russia invading you and placing their puppets in charge or revolutions...
That said you need a balance, but this total opposition to the state doing anything new to face new problems or offer new solutions is just a naive ideology.
I don't think this is as a red flag as the other EU proposal which are very threatening to privacy and security, like Chat Control and the mandatory EU-wide government CA root certificate.
EDIT: a quick search shows up that this can actually be the eIDAS. if it's the latter, it's a big problem.
Conspiracy theories aside, having my electronic id recognized anywhere in the EU will save a lot of "scan and upload a PDF of your ID" moments. Not to mention the convenience of managing access to my data from the comfort of my sofa.
Single one-time authentication flow makes so much more sense from security viewpoint.
This is just standardization, which is a benefit.
The eIDAS problem is not even about having a root certificate in place but severely lowering the bar for the security aspects of the root certificates and mandating browsers to accept it even if those certificates use weak cryptographic algorithms.
EU would be when there's a final legislation, before that it is largely proposals (commission) or individual instituripns' views (parliament or council) and often various other entities are also cited as 'eu' positions even when they only represent a certain position/role or often even are just lobbies (BusinessEurope for example).
All this just to say that often what is given as an "EU view" is not actuall a consensus but a proposal or negotiating position.
- Since "forever", laws apply to a specific PHYSICAL region (that's the basis for a concept of "government", be it democracy or other). These laws are enforced by "law enforcement forces", starting with "border law inforcement forces"
- Between "etatic entities" there is "treaties" agreed by parties
- But "the Internet" messed everything up: suddenly no law could be enforced because the was no VIRTUAL region with a "government" matching the PHYSICAL region
Different governement solved this problem with different solutions:
- China / Russia... used some kind of "Great firewall"
- US used some kind of "soft power" (owning the main infrastructure + main economic actors + extraterritorial laws)
Europe decided to find a mix between those: limiting US "soft power" with more rules (DSA, DMA), trying to develop European economic competitor... and limiting people abilty to escape to a "lawless internet with anonimity"
Also add to the list UK, DE, CH, IT, BG, probably others in Euro area. Implementation varies, but most of the time DNS level blocking, sometimes plain old ACL to block IP. Varies on country-per-country basis. Source - I consult ISPs across the world (fortunately not about blocking).
If you move out of EU you vote in your home country. I guess the exact procedure depends on your home country, some allow mail ballots others require you to come to the embassy.
For example Rob Roos is also an very outspoken anti-vaccine and against climate legislation.