Under the pretense of fortifying digital security in the United States, newly proposed legislation seeks to transform the United States Postal Service (USPS) into a hub for digital IDs. Senators Ron Wyden, a Democrat, and Bill Cassidy, Republican, have put forth the bill known as the Post Office Services for Trustworthy Identity Act. The proposed legislation opens new discourse on digital privacy and the potential for abnormal surveillance measures, sparking debate over the delicate balance between biosecurity and preserving citizens’ fundamental rights.
We obtained a copy of the bill for you here [PDF].
The proposed legislation comes in response to the piecemeal approach taken towards biometric identification in America. Historically, disjointed programs have been created by different states and separate agency undertakings, giving rise to the necessity for a more coherent national strategy. The Post Office Services for Trustworthy Identity Act could mark a landmark shift, focusing on service provision rather than overarching digital ID strategy.
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This article is a mess. I did find another one that explains a little more here.
Ron Wyden has a really good record on privacy, free speech and digital rights, here’s an unrelated post where the Electronic Frontier Foundation is interviewing him.
I do think with advancement in deep fake video and audio, verifying that you’re talking to who you think you’re talking to is going to become a big challenge. This bill seems to be addressing that - physically going somewhere to verify your Identity. And better for that to be an official government agency than a corporation who will charge who knows what and do who knows what with the data.
Another concept of verifying identity that I haven’t heard much about lately is the web of trust. People can verify other people they know and trust, and then they can vouch for second or third connections who you have not verified yet. Trouble is it can seem convoluted to people who aren’t familiar, and requires adoption from many people before it becomes useful. If the government just says “this is a thing we’re doing” then much more likely to be adopted.
This is step one in building towards a CBDC (central bank digital currency) where the government can see every transaction you make regardless of size and without any legal justification to access that data. It’s the end of privacy and enables turnkey fascism. Programmable money that not only lets them see all your transactions, but can stop you from spending money at certain places or in certain ways. It would integrate easily with a social credit score system.
Imagine a government you don’t want in charge having that kind of power and insight. Imagine a government which already broadly abuses civil forfeiture laws now having that much control over the actual currency. Surprised to see Wyden being the sponsor of this bill, he has a long history of standing for people’s right to privacy.
Edit: I understand why we need a nationally-recognized ID system and why SSNs are terrible. I am just very inherently skeptical of anything that grants more power to the government, especially when there is a decent chance a government which intends to take away rights like abortion and freedom to even discuss the existence of non-straight people currently has control of the supreme court and may very well win the next presidential race.
I’m gonna be real, we do need an actual id system in the US. Right now we treat social security numbers like one, but they’re extremely insecure.
We’re going to have a number either way, may as well have one that isn’t as easy for scammers to steal.
They were never meant to be used that way. The solution is to stop using them that way. We do not need a digital-compatible id system in the US.
We definitely do need one. Right now it’s a hodge podge of crap that wasn’t meant to be an identifier and it makes identity theft easy, and our privacy isn’t even being protected because we still have an SSN and tax ID.
Having worked in the medical space, a lack of identifier is actually a huge issue that causes problems for people daily, especially people changing their names for whatever reason.
I think it would be better to do everything with accounts that are not necessarily permanently connected to a person’s identity. Any government mediated, definitive system for identifying people is way too risky from a general privacy and freedom perspective.
The government can already identify you, and your identity is easy to steal. Making a better ID system just removes the identity theft issue.
The other nice thing would be you could use the id number instead of your name so you can stop giving your PII out to every business. Just “here’s my ID number, bill my insurance, you don’t need anything else.”
Fixing both of these problems would be better than just one.
Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
The issue is that the surveillance state is actively bad, and expanding it and making it more official is a much bigger problem than the problem of ill-conceived verification systems, which could be better solved other ways. I don’t want things to be perfect, I want to prioritize moving away from a dystopian panopticon.
I’m curious. What would make a different number more secure than a SSN?
Because it would be a private key associated with a public key
SSN’s main issues are that it’s hard to change, and it’s predictable. If they know your date of birth and where you were born then they can reliably determine your SSN. And once your SSN is out, it’s very difficult to change unless your identity was already stolen.
I have no idea why you just asking a question got down voted.
Makes sense. Even just being able to easily change it on your own would go a long way. I have a hard time seeing public key cryptography really catching on for something like this, but maybe it will.
I love your username
Thanks! Lol
You wouldn’t use a number, you would use something closer to a yubikey/passkey.
You know what would be great? Low-barrier non-predatory banking services for low-income people provided by the post office like basically every other country has.
Nothing in that bill talks about biometrics.
It mentions biometrics in the thumbnail
Luckily we haven’t seen bad actors put in charge of the post office, doing unethical things, so all good here, nothing to see.
I don’t wanna degenerate into one of those tin foil hat people but holy goddamn how are they implementing this and where is it going in 10, 15 years? Biometric IDs, seriously?? Why don’t they just make drivers licences electronically verifiable, like debit cards?
Or like most other countries in the EU
Yeah, I thought they already do something like that with REAL ID?
TIL, the Real ID Act requires states share license databases with other states.
It isn’t quite the same as a digital ID though. This involves verification in the private sector.