[Reader-list] Israeli IT firms to bid for unique ID card project- 154

[Taha Mehmood]

Dear Pankhuree,

Thank you for responding.

I think your imagination of a possibility that, " Maybe it is not that
India's poor will be instantly transformed into consumers, maybe it is
possible they will be consumed" might not be entirely incorrect.
However the terms of such a consumption might be both voluntarily and
coercive or a combination of both. For instance, I do not think that
all those who 'donate' their organs to other people, do it willfully.
or for that matter, all those who donate have access to the internet.

ID cards in such a manner could work in a counter productive manner
too, that a service could be consumed by those who put in the lowest
bid. An assumption behind this argument could be, that since
information is the key and the access to information related to
the-producers-of-service is with the consumers or handlers ( the
go-between people) then ID cards with all its tall claims might only
work in favor of few consumers.

ID card is a knowledge game. Information is being harvested from one
and all in the name of security, poverty and efficiency. The process
of harvesting this information is infested with private vendors. The
management of this information, in all likelihood will therefore go to
private vendors too. Of course this type of information will be of
immense use to the corporates but, I think, in the long run, it will
depend on how this information permeates the public realm.

I like your reference to possible future scenarios developed by Ms
Klein and yes I think if that were to happen ID cards will play a big
role. Precisely because of the fact, that ID cards, especially of the
contact less variety, are crucial to the politics of regulating
access. Who is in and who is out will depend on the number they will
have. Social sorting also becomes relatively easy with ID cards and
this is something not unknown to players in say, mobile/cell phone
business. How social sorting will be incorporated in policies of the
State will, I think, be known to us in near future?

So yes scary, it will be,  but I do not know how different that scare
will be from say, scare that some people face now. When there is
gating of colonies in cities like Delhi and the guards manning the
gates are instructed to allow people with less or no questioning who
fit in a particular  social profile and subject to detailed
questioning all those 'other' people, who do not look a particular
social type.

I think that scare may be absorbed in the everyday and people might
somehow develop a way around it either by imbibing a change in terms
of access or maybe by resisting it or incorporating it or perhaps by
overpowering such technology by using processes like reverse
engineering.

Maybe the culture of scare spilling from the side of the State which
assimilates shades of benignity  and concern and could be punitive too
is the one which needs to looked into carefully. Not necessarily of
the material sorts but of the ideational sorts.

Warm regards

Taha