Global Digital Identity Systems: Interdisciplinary Insights into Surveillance, Governance, and Prophetic Implications
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65655/v186sm55Keywords:
digital identity, surveillance capitalism, biopolitics, technocracy, social credit, conditional access, prophetic implications, Digital control gridAbstract
Global digital identity programmes are accelerating across continents, yet their broader social, political, and theological ramifications remain under examined. This article presents an interdisciplinary, theory-driven comparison of four emblematic systems: the European Union’s EUDI Wallet, India’s Aadhaar, China’s Social Credit framework, and the United Kingdom’s proposed BritCard. Using the lenses of surveillance capitalism, biopolitics, and technocracy, it scrutinises the gap between inclusive rhetoric and coercive outcomes, especially the migration from identification to conditional access. The study integrates a systematic review of 150 primary sources published between 2010 and 2025, AI-assisted thematic synthesis, and foresight scenario building that evaluates the coming convergence of digital identity, central-bank digital currencies, and artificial intelligence. The resulting conceptual model traces the progression from legitimising narratives, through technological architectures, to economic enforcement mechanisms, culminating in a prophetic horizon where participation in commerce hinges on state-approved credentials. Findings reveal a consistent global trajectory: identification systems evolve into compulsory gateways that determine access to welfare, mobility, finance, and expression. Evidence from India and Nigeria documents life-threatening service denials caused by authentication failures, while China’s blacklist regime exemplifies algorithmic governance capable of constraining millions. Parallel legal debates in Europe and the United Kingdom show democratic resistance but also technocratic momentum. We conclude that digital ID infrastructures, if left unchecked, risk realising a form of conditional access eerily consonant with Revelation 13:16–17. Robust privacy law, decentralised architectures, and viable alternatives for the un-enrolled are indispensable to safeguard human dignity for present and future generations.
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