Why the state monopoly on identity is worse than Big Tech

The state's monopoly on identity excludes vulnerable people from jobs, housing, healthcare and more.

This article originally began as a response to The Reboot's article, which discusses the dangers of perpetual tracking by Google, Facebook and Microsoft. [1]

While the tracking by Google, Facebook and Microsoft is definitely disturbing and can even put people in danger, the state's data economy is even worse, with far-reaching consequences. Few people talk about this, even though it affects millions of people's daily lives.

Via the government ID system, the state exerts a monopoly on identity and an obsession with tracking people from “birth certificate” to “death certificate”. Disproportionate KYC regulations actively exclude people without government-issued ID from necessary services, including jobs, housing and healthcare and even everyday things like online shopping, receiving mail, buying a sim card, doing volunteer work, taking classes, or visiting the gym or library.

Millions of people worldwide don't have access to government ID (the state refuses to print it for them) or can't show ID for safety reasons (e.g. they are a victim of abuse and don't want to be tracked down by the abuser). These people are often already in vulnerable situations (for example: stateless, undocumented or homeless people; activists, dissidents or refugees; victims of domestic abuse or adult victims of child abuse; or adults whose birth was not registered) and exclusion from basic needs makes it even more difficult to survive.

The state offers no alternatives nor solutions – if the state refuses to print a passport, national ID card or birth certificate for someone, this person can't appeal, get help from NGOs or lawyers, or find an alternative way to get ID. [2]

The state's system does not offer a procedure to register yourself, for example if you weren't registered at birth or your country of birth is dangerous to you. There are no steps you can take – no appeals, checklists, regularization, rehabilitation, special circumstances, friendly jurisdictions, nor identity issuer of last resort. You cannot earn access to ID via merit, vouches, oaths, good behavior, probation, community service, nor any other form of effort or compassion. Even if the individual would otherwise qualify for a skilled work, marriage or humanitarian visa and could provide a biometric photo and fingerprints, this is not enough.

Similarly, there are no non-state solutions. NGOs and religious organizations like the United Nations, Red Cross and Caritas don't issue alternative IDs; jurisdictional arbitrage such as Flag Theory requires an existing birth certificate or old passport; and non-government IDs from World Passport or Digitalcourage are not accepted. This lack of alternatives only cements the state's monopoly.

In the 1950s, the United Nations issued conventions on statelessness [3] and refugee status [4], but today countries still refuse to issue IDs for stateless people, people who weren't registered at birth, and people who have fled political, cultural or interpersonal persecution – whether by arbitrarily or discriminatorily denying applications for stateless status, refugee status or delayed birth registration, ignoring submitted applications, or not having a process for applications at all, while simultaneously criminalizing people without a legal identity. [5] In 2014, the UNHCR started a campaign to “end statelessness by 2024” [6], but today it is still impossible to get a stateless or non-citizen passport, and unlike the laissez-passer passports of the past, the United Nations no longer issues substitute IDs, despite that it could help millions of people to access necessities such as employment, housing and healthcare.

This condemns individuals purely and permanently to their circumstances of birth, which they could not influence and cannot change. As an adult, there is no way to enter the system. If you were born in the wrong place (e.g. stateless, refugee, dissident) and/or to the wrong people (e.g. child abuse, cult, no birth registration), there is no way to rise above your situation through effort, determination nor compassion.

The state's monopoly on identity is therefore an unethical, fatalistic single point of failure.

Even for individuals with ID, the name that the state prints on their ID may not correspond to the name that they use in real life, which could put them in danger. [7] Many countries restrict or even ban legal name changes, which endangers victims of abuse (such as adults who escaped from child abuse, domestic abuse, cults or gangs), who use a self-chosen name for a fresh start, to feel human, to recover from trauma or for physical safety reasons. [8]

As government ID is not universal and does not signify security or trust, government ID requirements only disproportionately and unfairly exclude people from services. [9]

Returning to the topic of “surveillance capitalism” – People can choose to stop using Google, Facebook, Windows or stock Android. There are many alternatives, such as DuckDuckGo, Mastodon, Linux and custom ROMs such as Lineage or Graphene. There are also ways to protect your privacy, such as reducing usage of social media, using a VPN or Tor, using a burner phone, using a pseudonym, or using cash or crypto instead of credit cards. [10]

In comparison, when the state coerces the vast majority of employers, landlords and hospitals to require government ID, there are only a few gray market alternatives left (e.g. under the table work, informal rentals for cash, doctors who accept out-of-pocket payments). [11]

It is a stark contrast: If you don't use Facebook for privacy reasons, you can still find different ways to keep in contact with friends and local events. If you can't rent most apartments because the landlord requires a passport or driver's license, you are very lucky if you can find a room in a shared apartment where your roommates deal with the contract for you and you pay rent to your roommates in cash. One thing can be an inconvenience, one thing can cause homelessness.

Many people believe government ID is the only way to trust that “someone is who they say they are”. [12] If someone admits that they don't have “proper ID”, they are often seen as untrustworthy, hiding something or even dangerous. [13] The equation of “ID = trust” not only leads to social stigma and exclusion, but can also lead to poverty and homelessness [14], threats of violence, or even indefinite detention (in many countries, cops can demand ID without a reason, and detain the individual until their legal identity is known – which can mean indefinite imprisonment for people who were never assigned a legal identity [15] [16]). Rather than “innocent until proven guilty”, this creates a situation of “guilty and no way to prove innocence”.

If innocence is not based on your actions, but purely on possession of government ID, it creates an impossible scenario when no jurisdiction agrees to print ID for you – from stateless people who literally have nowhere to go, to refugees who can't return to or interact with their country of birth for safety reasons, to adults whose births were never registered, to victims of child abuse, domestic abuse or cult abuse who don't use their birth name due to decades of trauma or worse the risk of being tracked down and returned. Instead of blaming authoritarian countries, uncooperative bureaucrats, abusive or neglectful birth parents, violent ex-partners or sociopathic cult leaders, the victim is blamed, distrusted and considered as a criminal.

In an ideal world, people would be judged on their actions and intent, rather than on circumstances of birth and decisions of bureaucrats. For housing, only your ability to pay rent would be relevant. For a job, only your skills and work ethic would be relevant. For healthcare, only your medical condition would be relevant (it would be against the Hippocratic Oath to deny medical treatment to people without ID, especially if they are paying out-of-pocket in cash).

For identity, it would be enough to say your name, get a vouch from a friend, landlord or employer, link to a social media profile, or use a non-government photo ID (such as from Digitalcourage or World Passport, which does not require birth registration or citizenship and allows self-chosen names).

For authentication, you would use a password or PIN (e.g. SMS code to pickup mail), physical key or card (e.g. mailbox keys, membership cards) or a cryptographic keypair (such as in PGP, Bitcoin or Monero).

For trust, word-of-mouth was the primary method before government IDs were invented (and made mandatory) in the 20th century. [17] [18] [19] Nowadays, word-of-mouth includes vouches from friends, online reviews, social networks, web-of-trust and memberships. Cash deposits and escrow systems (e.g. Bitrated) would protect against scams, theft or damage.

This meritocratic, non-government market is not theoretical. Permissionless free markets exist today – under the names of agorism [20], informal economies, black and gray markets, parallel economies and Second Realms – and offer hope and a means to survive to people in need. [21] [22] While NGOs have tried in vain to convince the state to print IDs for vulnerable people, these independent markets take a practical, grassroots approach to help people access work, housing and healthcare, even without government-issued ID. [23]

These free markets offer a way for people to take control of their situation. Human rights activists have campaigned since decades, while individuals have been left in limbo or excluded entirely from society, purely due to bureaucracy. In the 1950s, the United Nations called on nation-states to print IDs for stateless people, unregistered people and refugees – but seventy years later, the situation has only become worse, as more daily life necessities require government ID KYC every year, yet nation-states still refuse to print ID for millions of people.

Even worse, these people are not being accused of a specific crime and there is no real justification to deny printing IDs for them – their only “crime” is the vicious circle of not having papers because the state refuses to print papers for them. You would think economic exclusion – banned from employment, housing, healthcare, education, banking, travel, contracts, mail, sim cards and more – would be a punishment for only the most severe of crimes. But for stateless people, refugees, victims of abuse and people who weren't registered at birth, it is a punishment for being born. In this unforgiving situation, the informal economy provides an essential lifeline and way to survive.

Some examples include under-the-table work, informal apartment rentals, health clinics run by volunteers and anonymous sim cards. Most informal, agorist markets are local, based on word-of-mouth with cash-in-hand payments. The internet can also offer a place for an uncensored digital economy – such as for global trade [24], remote work, activism, fundraising [25] and community building – while cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Monero offer a way to send and receive money online without government ID or a bank account [26] [27] and withdraw to local cash when needed [28].

There are many reasons why people participate in agorist markets. It can be quicker and easier to rent out your spare room for cash, pay a doctor out-of-pocket instead of dealing with public health insurance, or hire an online freelancer for crypto. Bureaucracy doesn't just shut people out of the market, it also takes time and money to fill out forms, deal with months-long wait times, pay extortionate fees, and apply for government permission (which may be denied for arbitrary or discriminatory reasons). Agorism cuts the red tape, enabling people to access what they need in a truly free market.

As the state continues to ostracize and even criminalize vulnerable people, agorism provides not only hope of inclusion and equal opportunities, but a practical, proven solution which works today. For universal and safe access to daily needs such as employment, housing and healthcare, it is important to build and use agorist markets that are immune to the state's monopoly on identity, invisible to the state's data economy, and free for everyone to use.

The following books, articles and podcasts provide more information about agorism, as well as practical examples:

“An Agorist Primer” by SEK3: https://kopubco.com/pdf/An_Agorist_Primer_by_SEK3.pdf

“Second Realm: Book on Strategy” by Smuggler & XYZ: https://ia801807.us.archive.org/34/items/second-realm-digital/Second%20Realm%20Paperback%20New.pdf

“Crypto Agorism: Free markets for a free world” by AnarkioCrypto: https://tube.tchncs.de/w/tPvohTaiocfg5LEsFjGqHN
Slides: https://anarkiocrypto.medium.com/crypto-agorism-free-markets-for-a-free-world-d9c755e6ef11

“Fifty things to do NOW” by The Free and Unashamed: https://libertyunderattack.com/fifty-things-now-free-unashamed

Vonu Podcast: https://vonupodcast.com

Agora Podcast: https://anchor.fm/mortified-penguin

Monero Talk Podcast: https://www.monerotalk.live

Hack Liberty Forum: https://forum.hackliberty.org

Sources:

[1] https://thereboot.com/why-we-should-end-the-data-economy/
[2] https://anarkio.codeberg.page/blog/roadblocks-to-obtaining-government-id.html
[3] https://www.unhcr.org/what-we-do/protect-human-rights/ending-statelessness/un-conventions-statelessness
[4] https://www.unhcr.org/about-unhcr/who-we-are/1951-refugee-convention
[5] https://index.statelessness.eu/sites/default/files/UNHCR%2C%20Faces%20of%20Statelessness%20in%20the%20Czech%20Republic%20(2020).pdf
[6] https://unhcr.org/ibelong/about-statelessness
[7] https://blog.twitter.com/common-thread/en/topics/stories/2021/whats-in-a-name-the-case-for-inclusivity-through-anonymity
[8] https://privacyinternational.org/long-read/2274/identity-discrimination-and-challenge-id
[9] https://www.economist.com/christmas-specials/2018/12/18/establishing-identity-is-a-vital-risky-and-changing-business
[10] https://anonymousplanet.org/guide.html
[11] https://anarkio.codeberg.page/blog/survival-outside-the-state.html
[12] https://sneak.berlin/20200118/you-dont-need-to-see-my-id
[13] https://vonupodcast.com/know-your-customer-kyc-the-rarely-discussed-danger-guest-article-audio/
[14] https://www.statelessness.eu/blog/each-person-left-living-streets-we-are-losing-society
[15] https://www.penalreform.org/blog/proving-who-i-am-the-plight-of-people/
[16] https://index.statelessness.eu/themes/detention
[17] https://dergigi.medium.com/true-names-not-required-fc6647dfe24a
[18] https://fee.org/articles/passports-were-a-temporary-war-measure/
[19] https://medium.com/@hansdezwart/during-world-war-ii-we-did-have-something-to-hide-40689565c550
[20] https://anarkio.codeberg.page/agorism/
[21] https://libertyunderattack.com/fifty-things-now-free-unashamed
[22] https://medium.com/@Kallman/a-21st-century-introduction-to-agorism-5dc69b54d79f
[23] https://kopubco.com/pdf/An_Agorist_Primer_by_SEK3.pdf
[24] https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/kyc-free-bitcoin-circular-economies
[25] https://kuno.anne.media
[26] https://c4ss.org/content/57847
[27] https://whycryptocurrencies.com/toc.html
[28] https://blog.trezor.io/buy-bitcoin-without-kyc-33b883029ff1