The problem with digital-IDs

The problem with digital-IDs

The UK government has announced it has dropped its plan to introduce a new mandatory digital-ID system for anyone wanting to work in the UK. It was not alone in wanting to introduce a digital means of identification, with many countries doing so in recent years, including Australia, Egypt, Estonia and Japan. However, the plans were met with widespread opposition in the UK, with concerns over the use of biometric data and having to carry identification to go about daily…

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Internet shutdowns are increasing dramatically in Africa – a new book explains why

Internet shutdowns are increasing dramatically in Africa – a new book explains why

Between 2016 and 2024 there were 193 internet shutdowns imposed in 41 African countries. This form of social control is a growing trend in the continent, according to a new open access source book. It has provided the first-ever comparative analysis of how and why African states use blackouts – written by African researchers. The book, co-edited by digital rights activist and internet shutdown specialist Felicia Anthonio and digital researcher Tony Roberts, offers 11 in-depth case studies of state-sponsored shutdowns….

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Internet shutdowns are increasing dramatically in Africa – a new book explains why

Internet shutdowns are increasing dramatically in Africa – a new book explains why

Between 2016 and 2024 there were 193 internet shutdowns imposed in 41 African countries. This form of social control is a growing trend in the continent, according to a new open access source book. It has provided the first-ever comparative analysis of how and why African states use blackouts – written by African researchers. The book, co-edited by digital rights activist and internet shutdown specialist Felicia Anthonio and digital researcher Tony Roberts, offers 11 in-depth case studies of state-sponsored shutdowns….

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Three questions about the multi-billion dollar biometric digital-ID industry:

Three questions about the multi-billion dollar biometric digital-ID industry:

1. There is no country where citizens called for biometric digital-ID – so in whose interests is it being imposed? 2. If human rights are entitlements due to all human beings unconditionally, why are govts making them conditional on biometric ID? 3. What is the logical end point if we allow states and corporations to conduct ever-more intrusive mass surveillance of our daily lives? I am constantly shocked to see the billions of dollars endlessly poured into biometric digital-ID systems…

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Decolonising Digital Public Infrastructure

Decolonising Digital Public Infrastructure

This post explores whether digital public infrastructure (DPI) can be considered to be a colonial technology and if so, what would be necessary to decolonise DPI? In recent years the agenda to impose biometric digital-ID across the globe has widened into a ‘digital public infrastructure’ that links biometric digital-ID systems to digital payments systems and data exchange platforms. This trilogy of technologies enables efficiencies in the state’s digital payments for social security entitlements to citizens such as pensions and benefits,…

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Digital Inclusion as Anti-Politics: a confession

Digital Inclusion as Anti-Politics: a confession

This blog is based on my input to the ICT4D-North workshop at Salford University. I was asked, “What are some emerging risks or blind spots in global digital inclusion efforts that we should be paying more attention to?” One blind spot is how digital inclusion projects work as a form of ‘anti-politics’. As you know, James Ferguson argued that the development industry often functions as an “anti-politics machine”. He argued that the development industry oversimplifies complex socio-economic problems and offers…

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Ten reasons not to use AI for development and ten routes to more responsible use

Ten reasons not to use AI for development and ten routes to more responsible use

The UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer says we should be mainlining AI directly into every part of government and the economy. The Foreign Secretary says he is planning to bring ‘AI into the heart of our work’.  However, there is a great deal of evidence about the harms that AI can cause. Here I outline ten reasons not to use generative AI, like ChatGPT, in international development or humanitarian work, while outlining how work on Responsible AI can address these…

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Welfare payments are going digital in Africa – but this isn’t helping those without internet access or smartphones

Welfare payments are going digital in Africa – but this isn’t helping those without internet access or smartphones

Read my article on digital social protection systems in the Conversation and join in the discussion: We conducted the largest study of its kind in 2023 through surveys and focus groups with domestic, disabled, migrant and home-based workers in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia bringing together organisations championing African workers’ rights, disability rights and digital rights. In speaking to workers’ leaders, civil society groups and government agencies administering social insurance systems, it became clear that the…

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Podcast: Governance And Digitization Of Social Protection For Informal Workers

Podcast: Governance And Digitization Of Social Protection For Informal Workers

In this episode, we start a new building block of our social protection solar system with the first episode on the topic of GOVERNANCE. We have invited two guests to lay the groundwork for this block, to help us understand social protection governance, as well as the new concerns and potentials brought by digitization. We start with Tony Roberts. Tony is a researcher based at the Institute of Development Studies on the campus of the University of Sussex in the…

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Digital Citizenship and Digital Solidarity in Africa

Digital Citizenship and Digital Solidarity in Africa

The growth in the popularity of the internet around the world, as evidenced by growing user numbers, particularly in Africa, has enabled citizens to harness its power as a tool of agency, creating new global and transnational spaces for civic participation, advocacy, and social change…