What Are the Upsides and Downsides of Digital IDs and Data Centers?

In general, proponents of digital IDs point to increased efficiency and convenience for users and operators. Fraud prevention or reduction also appears to be a strength of digital IDs. This reduction in fraud pertains not only to the financial sector but also to the distribution of government aid. Beyond preventing fraud, digital IDs are often credited with reducing or eliminating duplicate beneficiaries of government funds.

However, digital IDs are susceptible to data breaches. For example, Aadhaar, India’s digital ID, has reported multiple breaches, raising questions about the security of the system. In addition to breaches, there have been instances of surveillance and private sector data-mining. Though Aadhaar seems to have more issues than some of the other digital IDs, Estonia’s e-ID has also had some issues, including programming errors, technical flaws that would have made users susceptible to identity theft, and a malware attack.

These examples are not representative of all digital IDs, but they do provide examples of the way that systems can go wrong. Any shift toward digital IDs of this sort needs to be interacting analyzing why these systems failed and how such failures might be mitigated. In certain instances, specifically Aadhaar, it is difficult to believe that the upsides outweigh the downsides.

As one might assume, data centers are necessary to store, access, and secure data transmitted over the internet. Data centers enable electronic health records, real-time payments, fraud detection, inventory management, and online shopping. They also provide backup capabilities to guard against data loss due to hardware failures, cyberattacks, and natural disasters.

Data centers offer many benefits, but there are some notable downsides. Data centers require massive amounts of energy that many communities are struggling to supply. There are also certain security and privacy risks, including the potential for mass surveillance.

Digital IDs and data centers aren’t perfect, but what is? Banks can be robbed, physical IDs can be faked, credit cards can be stolen. No system is completely immune to bad actors. Still, we need to be informed about the specific dangers associated with new technologies. How data will be protected and used is crucial. While clickable terms and conditions allowed companies to meet the legal requirements for communicating how data would be used, those terms and conditions are far from transparent.

Beyond these practical benefits and concerns, we must also reflect on how the data we attend to shapes our understanding of ourselves and one another. Broad-scale data that generalizes human behavior is valuable, but it must be balanced with an organic, relational understanding of individuals in their particularity. When people are reduced to data points, something essential is lost. As necessary as it may be to collect data and statistics, they cannot be the only lenses through which we view humanity. Nor should they define how governing authorities see us—though, too often, they do.