<https://www.politico.eu/article/future-passports-biometric-risk-profiles-the...> [...] Ultimately, the replacement of physical passports with digital forms of identification presents a challenge to the concept of “citizenship.” The goal in Western societies like the EU and the U.S. is to have all travel biometrically determined. What’s never discussed is that this has the potential to change the criteria by which travelers are permitted to enter and leave a country. Those travelers whom governments identify as posing lesser risks will be waived through. For example, Peter Graham, a former director at IBM, working on border security, immigration and identity management, envisions a future in which “the foreign business traveler who comes to Europe regularly would have a Biometric Residence Permit and when using it would go through the same light touch process as a European citizen.” Global business leaders are falling over themselves to propose such streamlined forms of travel. In other words, business travelers would become de facto citizens. That’s great for them, but what about those on the other end of the automated risk spectrum? If you're a Muslim American traveler, entering the U.S. at an international airport is a very different experience. China is the most advanced algorithmic surveillance state on earth | Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images The advance of data-driven uses of identification is likely irreversible. In democratic societies, rights protections may limit abuse. But how long can these hold? Security technologies tend to creep. How to control them is perhaps the most important question of our age. In China, the epicenter of “algorithmic surveillance,” the meaning of citizenship has already changed. A newly piloted “citizenship score” system seeks to make risk profiles a daily part of life. Those considered loyal to the regime are rewarded with social “goods,” such as high-speed internet or expedited visas to travel. Those who post political statements online without express permission or contradict the government risk having those goods taken away, or worse, see their civil liberties, already tenuous, further constrained.
From outside China, it’s easy to dismiss this as dystopian. It couldn’t happen in a democracy, right? But the truth is that it’s already happening. There’s no difference in the underlying logic between China’s citizenship scores and Western risk ratings. [...]