Take Action Now: Solving Digital ID
The threat of Digital ID + March Recap
There’s a purrfect way to eliminate the threat of state mandated Digital ID. To avoid the traps laid before us we must be clever like foxes, brave like lions, and persistent like turtles. it’s more urgent than ever that we hop to a new direction, so that we don’t become prey to the machine. Are you ready to suit up to stop tyranny?
Background
Granting governments (and partner corporations) the ability to issue you a irrevocable identity is a terrible idea prone to disaster. If you have an identity that is solely governed and controlled by the state you are its subject and no longer a citizen. Is it fair that in a single moment outside of your control, you are forever to be FIRSTNAME LASTNAME until judgement day?
A single irrevocable identity linked to all your online activities is a privacy and security nightmare. Even worse, with a digital identity becoming mandatory there are fears that people may be cut out of society like many people were when vaccine passports were enforced within countries. Despite all this, Digital IDs are being rolled out world-wide.
What does Digital ID aim to solve?
Identification
When one wants to access their personal accounts and services, it helps to be able to prove their identity. Uploading government issued IDs is prone to many risks related to how they are stored and secured. Having a secure mechanism to prevent identity theft is an attractive option.
Authentication
Passwords are out, people hate remembering them. They hate changing them, and even worse, they can be easily forgotten. With sophisticated technology we can replace passwords with encryption that allows your security to be guaranteed by math instead of memorizing dozens of passwords.
Interoperability
It makes a huge difference if the system can be easily adopted and maintained. All kinds of different entities both private and public want to be assured that they can properly validate identification without confusion.
Leaping Ahead
To take a different approach, we need to recognize the problems that Digital IDs are trying to solve, and work to incorporate them into our desired solution. Solving these issues will require creativity, inspiration, and a bit of wonder. By recognizing that our online lives are separate from our physical reality we can build a friendlier and fuzzier cyberspace.
The Solution: Fursonas
That’s right, it’s time to take a bold step towards reclaiming our own identities. As our digital experience encroaches over our daily lives, it’s best to find ways to properly set boundaries. The folly of top-down digital identities is that they ignore something fundamental about people’s social lives: you are different around different people.
We all lead multiple lives: our family lives, work lives, citizen lives, social lives, and many others. The best way to recognize and enforce this is to adopt a variety of real-world identities that can each use their own persona. By adopting multiple, disposable, self-chosen personalities we can set proper boundaries within particular contexts.
A fursona is a personalized character generally themed around a partiular animal (real or fictional) that can be used as an identity to represent you. It’s a tool to create a context when interacting with another person, group or institution. By designing an adorable character, you’ll be well on your way to reclaim your own identity from corporations and governments alike! Maybe you want to show Facebook or the DMV your claws, but keep your fuzzy side for friends and the local library. One of many advantages that if you create a fursuit for your fursona, you can gain the advantages of online pseudonymity in the real world. This is a game-changer for personal privacy.
How to Get Started
You’ll need a ref sheet that outlines the shape, color scheme, and personality of your new fursona. It helps to be as detailed as possible, to really connect with your character. Of course, try out multiple different OCs (Original Characters) to get a feel for how you’d like to be represented. The character can be similar to you, or a far-out fantasy of what you can imagine. The sky is the limit, and fly as far as your wings (or jets!) will take you.
With many different creations you’ll be ready with your citizensona (for government services) worksona (for your work life) and many others for all kinds of purposes. The beauty is that everyone gets to create and share together, drawing inspiration from infinite possibilities. Get friends involved! You can even brainstorm together and really get your wolf-pack together!
This is where you come in! It is urgent that you send in your citizensona’s ref sheet to your state representatives demanding recognition. No longer will we be forced into the identity forced on us, but rather what we chose to be. Now more than ever we need to set proper boundaries between us and the government.
Everybody wants to be a cat
The truth is, using your real life identity online is a sucker’s game. It’s much better to be a cute cat that nobody wants to attack. There are already many famous animals who are quite popular on X and Substack. Anonymity and pseudonymity are valuable traits for somebody who wants to be able to participate in online discussions without losing one of their nine lives.
Cybersecurity
Furries and Cybersecurity are a match made in heaven. You’ll notice that they’re all over Free Software and open source communities. So many projects will have animal mascots. Furry friends are constantly working all over the world to help build better tools. Firefox even has the ability to create containers for each of your different fursonas’ online activities. Using a password manager you can make use of different accounts for your different identities easily!
For extra security, each fursona can have it’s own unique security key. This can allow for more sophisticated security regimes, as well as protect against identity theft. By regularly using multiple identities, it can be easier than ever to restore access if one is lost. A hardware security key can get you almost all the benefits of a fancy state-mandated digital ID without the tyranny. Sign in to websites without attestation with any server through the webauthn protocol. Personalize your key to really make it your own!
The Internet of Animals
So many problems are solved when people leave their real names offline and use a separate identity online. Disposable manufactured identities are the perfect shield to protect users online from real-world threats. It’s a lot easier to stay safe online when you are anyone and anything!
April Fools!
Shucks! You’ve read too far. Today is the one day I will let loose with a silly diversion. This is a humorous attempt to get people thinking about the issue of state mandated digital IDs, as well as the cybersecurity/identity risks they claim to resolve. The preservation of online anonymity is an important objective not only for free speech on the Internet, but also for people’s safety and security. Governments are all-too-willing to abuse systems once put in place, and corporations are all too willing to enable them.
It’s critical to understand that there are serious concerns with a state-issued digital ID, just as there would be if you had to link your big tech social media profile to every aspect of your life. We should protect and enhance people’s ability to opt-out or outright refuse various online services without impacting their ability to otherwise participate in society.
This is a concern that will impact people all over the world, so it’s crucial to understand the nuances of the issue and be able to explain it to those around you. Many countries are essentially getting their foot in the door with age verification laws, or merely strengthening their regulatory control over online infrastructure.
There is no panacea. Many are desperately falling into the “centralized vs decentralized” false dichotomy on many systems these days. I do not believe that tokenized digital identities are inherently any more private or self-sovereign than centralized ones. The correct level to fight these issues is directly at the privacy risks and gate-keeping functionality. It does not matter who or what group has control over the system, we should judiciously avoid implementations that impact peoples autonomy.
Digital ID Roundup
🌟 Visa & Mastercard: The Real Threat To The Digital ID Control System
Identity Crisis: What Digital Driver’s Licenses Could Mean for Privacy, Equity, and Freedom
Over 3M digital IDs distributed in Afghanistan, 900k activated in Jordan
Florida Digital ID: DeSantis Signs Online Age Verification Law
Here are the 20+ states exploring support for Apple’s digital IDs in Wallet feature
March Recap
In case you missed it!
Network States
Items of Interest
🏛️ Facebook snooped on users’ Snapchat traffic in secret project, documents reveal
⭐ More information📨 Telegram’s peer-to-peer SMS login service is a privacy nightmare
Even The Most Well-Meaning Internet Regulations Can Cause Real Harm
Dutch Court Orders ISP To Block 'Anna's Archive' and 'LibGen'
Suicide Hotlines Promise Anonymity. Dozens of Their Websites Send Sensitive Data to Facebook
Study Shows OpenVPN Traffic Can Be Easily Identified and Blocked
Flipper Zero makers respond to Canada’s ‘harmful’ ban proposal
Italy’s Piracy Shield Blocks Innocent Web Sites And Makes It Hard For Them To Appeal
Fundamental Limits of Lightning by Rene Pickhardt @ 2023 MIT Bitcoin Expo
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Good one :D
I’m gunna dig into this more deeply
Thanks