The Political Philosophy of Digital Identity

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

With the launch of GOV.UK Verify in 2016, the British Government claimed to have developed a secure, flexible and cost-effective way of identifying and authenticating onlineusers of its public services. Despite slow uptake of the novel federated digital identity scheme1, which stores no centralised database of users or their attributes, the plan is now to extend itsremit beyond public services usage alone (Bouchard, 2017). My proposed research topic is predominantly a normative critique of this expansion of Verify to private-sector businessesand organisations. Through practical and theoretical analysis, I will investigate the effects that opening Verify up to the private sector might have on the intertwined digital and physicalidentities of British citizens, and the secondary effects this might entail for their liberty and participation in the public sphere. Throughout, contrast and comparison with the abortedNational ID Card scheme - as well as the corporate digital identities that many citizens already possess - will be drawn. Ultimately, this case study will lead me to modify existing theories ofonline identity and privacy to better accommodate federated digital identity systems and the prospect of government-backed identity assurance in the private-sector. This will in turngenerate policy recommendations for the future, with emphasis placed on increasing user privacy and control by conceiving of Verify as a public utility to which citizens have a right.Whilst technical analyses of the federated identity systems underpinning Verify are plentiful (E.g. Tsakalakis et al, 2016; Stalla-Bourdillon et al, 2018), and some research has been doneinto the social effects of its public-sector usage (Brandão et al, 2015), there is a notable absence of academic discussion of the socio-political impacts that the forthcoming private-sectorexpansion could have. Exploring how such an expansion will affect previous political, social, and philosophical considerations of governmental identity systems is thus vitally important andtimely, as Verify forms the cornerstone of the Government Digital Strategy (GDS). This means the project will have real-world applicability to contemporary and future British politics. Afuller understanding of the benefits and risks that Verify's expansion presents to a user's digital/analogue identity, privacy, security and freedoms would provide a much-neededacademic basis for anticipating the issues that surround the proposed scheme and others like it.Research Questions1. What are the practical impacts of, and the political reasons for, expanding Verify to theprivate-sector?2. What are the potential philosophical and ethical issues surrounding this expansion?a. How are digital identities separate to and enmeshed with physical identities?b. How far can traditional theories of identity respond to federated identity?c. How does Verify compare to existing corporate or governmental digital identities?3. Should a Verify identity be thought of as a public utility to which citizens have a right?