The dystopian danger of a mandatory biometric database in Mexico

Re:The dystopian danger of a mandatory biometric database in... by toomuchtodo on Wednesday November 03, 2021 @03:31PM (#29099230)

National ID systems are a core component of effectively delivering services to citizens as well as keeping track of governmenty things (taxes, work authorization, residency, etc). Roughly 100 countries (a majority out of 195) have compulsory ID systems [1]. In the US, your social security number is effectively your national ID due to unfortunate function creep (which will hopefully be fixed one day when there is more sanity than those who argue a national ID is the “mark of the beast” or similar nonsense).

Concern about data governance and oversight are extremely valid critiques, arguing against such systems in a country’s journey from developing to developed less so. And if someone is offering hundreds of millions of dollars in loans to build developed world infrastructure, depending on terms and conditions, you might strongly consider accepting it.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_identity_card...

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Re:The dystopian danger of a mandatory biometric database in... by raxxorrax on Thursday November 04, 2021 @03:38AM (#29104383)

Only recently countries extended that to include biometric data without any discernible benefit.

The core of the criticism is that it goes beyond having a government ID. Yes, Europe sadly also collects biometric data by now. They also cannot be trusted to handle such data.

Even while there is no central database of fingerprints, they created many instances where this data can be leaked. Again, there is no benefit to collect this data.

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