Biometrical Data Too Sensitive To Be Handled By Private Companies
While private firms push their human and identity verification projects forward, governments are taking advantage of their positions to control and get ahead of the trend.
This week, another biometric identity startup joined the list of digital identity unicorns by raising funds for its market development. This means that a private firm will collect tens of millions more individuals' biometrical data.
The rapid pace of innovation put governments behind the private sector, with one exception: biometrical data.
When it comes to citizens' most sensible information, central authorities around the globe are actively developing initiatives to modernize their infrastructure and instrumentally deploying data protection legislation to delay the advances of private entities in the traditionally state-controlled arena.
Worldcoin: Adding Up Failures
The global identity network project World, formerly known as Worldcoin, was forced to halt activities in Brazil on January 25 for an indefinite period.
The iris-scan Silicon Valley company began operations in South America's largest economy last November and was immediately met with the opening of an investigation by the National Data Protection Authority (ANPD) into its data collection processes.
The results of the investigation have led ANPD to issue a preventive measure ordering the company to stop biometrical data collection in the country based on the argument that the financial incentives offered by World in exchange for scanning users' iris compromise the unwavering freedom of choice people should have when deciding to give such sensitive data away.
World troubles in Brazil follow a pattern with which the company has become familiar.
Almost all governments of the countries where it launched operations opened similar investigations and reached similar conclusions, demanding similar suspension of activities.
In December, the German Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision (BayLDA) concluded an investigation into Worldcoin's data collection process that had lasted over one year and a half.
The government agency required the company to delete much of the data it collected in Germany and other European Union countries, stating that "individual biometric data derived from iris images entails a number of fundamental data protection risks for at least a large number of data subjects."
Furthermore, the global identity network project was required to provide "explicit consent for certain processing steps in the future."
Worldcoin responded to the Brazilian and German authorities, as well as to most others, by insisting its activities are in accordance with national data protection laws and that it is in talks with the official agencies to resume iris-scanning operations.
EU Legislators Have A Better Option
BayLDA's investigation into Worldcoin began even before the network's universal launch in July 2023.
In 2024, two other member states of the European Union, Portugal and Spain, ordered Worldcoin to halt operations in their territories and delegated their investigations to the German data protection agency.
While the World's future in the EU was hanging on BayLDA's decision, the bloc's legislators approved, issued, and set in motion the European Digital Identity Regulation, also known as eIDAS 2.0.
By mandating that governments develop their own digital identity apps, the European Digital Identity Regulation can render the global identity project worthless by 2026.
The legislation, which member-states have up to 24 months to adopt, sets the ground rules for the "implementation of the European Digital Identity Wallet" that will allow EU citizens to identify themselves or provide confirmation of personal information across the region.
In Poland, the government-run digital identity app mObywatel is already being used by more than 8 million citizens.
The app's features include a digital version of users' ID cards and driver's licenses, and beyond the most obvious, it also allows users to check the local air quality.
According to the Guardian, there is growing interest in using the app to provide online verification.
Apps such as these are bound to raise concerns about state surveillance by the most suspicious in the crowds, but for the average folks who have always relied on their government for identity-related matters, a government-run identity platform is the natural evolution of the systems already in place.
Plus, adding such a platform as an option on all official matters of citizens' lives is bound to spearhead the app's adoption.
Russia: Trust Is Key
The European Union is a political bloc in which citizens' rights are well protected by multiple national and transnational institutions, and state abuse of citizens is, in its more direct forms, perceived to be eradicated.
To consider the same about its neighboring country, Russia would be delusional.
While official state numbers indicate that the majority of Russians support Vladimir Putin's government, support and trust are different things, as evidenced by the failure of similar digital identification initiatives to succeed in the country.
Nevertheless, a biometric identification system for banking services has recently started to gain traction. A 2022 directive requiring all state-owned banks to handle their customers' biometric data in the national Unified Biometric System (UBS) has only reached 3 million users, with 80% of them added in 2024.
Most recently, it was announced that Sberbank, the country's largest bank and an active participant in country digitalization initiatives, and the company behind the local payment card solution MIR are going to integrate their UBS systems, giving another boost to its adoption.
Also, last year, the country began implementing a facial recognition payment system, FacePay, in Moscow's subway system.
The initiative immediately raised alarms amongst the international community and Russian diaspora given that the same facial recognition technology has been used to arrest political dissidents, mass adoption might be challenging.
It remains to be seen whether governments will succeed in creating a national digital identification system robust enough to deal with the online challenges presented by artificial intelligence. What is already clear is that they are trying.