What measures are some countries taking to make people accept Biometric IDs and the CBDC system?
By Marica Micallef
Some countries are already taking measures so to get people to the Biometric IDs and the CBDC system.
The government of the Russian Federation continues to implement initiatives to plant an electronic biometric concentration camp in the country. A bill on the Unified Information System, from a series of “regulatory sandboxes” that brings closer the introduction of surveillance of every action of Russians on biometrics, was submitted through 140 pages to the Chamber, by Anton Gorelkin, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications. The document enshrines the right of the authorities to ignore the citizens’ consent to transfer their biometrics to the UBS, establishes a pass regime for biometrics in a large number of organizations, the confirmation of identity “by face” which is equated with passport verification, and also builds algorithms for the relationship of private organizations and individual entrepreneurs with citizens through the EBS. The document will be placed in the Duma electronic base.
“According to the bill, identification, including that carried out to exercise the powers of state bodies, local governments, using biometric data, is carried out using a single biometric system. In this case, authentication can be carried out using other information systems.”[1]
Also in Russia, the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank will make the possibilities of “public services” even wider by developing Russia’s Digital Economy project to launch a single platform for citizens’ consent to use their digital data in government and commercial systems. If successful, this will allow the Russian authorities to accelerate the digital transformation of the Russian economy.[2]
In schools, they are promoting “Smart Pass” for the switch to Digital IDs.[3]
In India, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), “the agency that implements the country’s Aadhaar identity system, claims to have reached almost one hundred per cent coverage of the population, fulfilling the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 16.9 of legal identity for all, including birth registration, by 2030.” Saurabh Garg, the UIDAI’s CEO, has emphasized that India has achieved not only legal identity but also digital identity for all.[4]
This means that India has more state-level authentication and face biometric self-authentication. The UIDAI is urging states to become more involved with the Aadhaar ecosystem, so that this system can be used more through deduplication of government service or welfare beneficiaries. Thus, UIDAI has been meeting with state government officials making it to 650 state-run schemes using Aadhaar authentication and 314 central government and sponsored projects using the biometric authentication – which will continue with face authentication via smartphones to then access government services.
“More service providers will be encouraged to use face and fingerprint data, to cover authentication for e-commerce and payments.
Residents may also be required to update their data held by UIDAI every ten years by coming forward for new fingerprint, face, iris and other data capture.”
The government in Islamabad has now given over a million Afghan refugees living in Pakistan ID cards with embedded biometrics, making it easier and more convenient for them to access some public services. The cards were issued after a month of confirming the applicants’ identities, so to “facilitate” the bearers’ access to services such as financial, health, and educational opportunities. The ID, which will be valid until June 2023, is embedded with a microchip that contains the biometric information of its owner.[5]
Nigeria has just banned ATM cash withdrawals over $225 a week to force the use of CBDC,[6] drastically reducing the amount of cash individuals and businesses can withdraw as it attempts to push its “cash-less Nigeria” policy, while increasing the use of eNaira – Nigeria’s central bank digital currency (CBDC). This directive was issued by Nigeria’s central bank of 6th December.[7]
In Pakistan, Interior Minister has warned that supporters of recently-ousted prime minister Imran Khan and his party, whose behaviour is considered “heckling or harassment will have their biometric identity cards blocked and therefore be unable to operate their bank accounts.”[8]
The future of our shopping also looks “attractive” until they link it to a cashless society:
Preparations for a digital concentration camp are in full swing so that WEF chief advisor, Yuval Noah Harari’s statement is fulfilled:
“When you have enough data, you don’t need to send soldiers to control a country.”
[1] https://www.pnp.ru/social/gorelkin-vnes-v-gosdumu-zakonoproekt-o-edinoy-sisteme-personalnykh-dannykh.html
[2] https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-42855-6_4
[3] https://www.smartpass.app/
[4] https://www.biometricupdate.com/202209/india-claims-to-effectively-meet-sdg16-9-of-legal-id-for-all-expands-authentication-methods
[5] https://www.biometricupdate.com/202206/pakistan-gives-1m-afghan-refugees-biometric-ids-for-government-services
[6] https://cointelegraph.com/news/nigeria-bans-atm-cash-withdrawals-over-225-a-week-to-force-use-of-cbdc
[7] https://cointelegraph.com/news/nigeria-bans-atm-cash-withdrawals-over-225-a-week-to-force-use-of-cbdc
[8] https://www.biometricupdate.com/202208/pakistani-political-hecklers-threatened-with-blocked-biometric-id-bank-accounts