#ID

Digital ID is a ghost that must perpetually prove “this is you” to the deep sea of the internet. Claiming to protect user privacy, it also lays golden eggs called personal data. Under the banner of convenience touted by governments and corporations, it tags your every move in a tag factory born of convenience and desire for control, a symbol of self-denial. In the name of identity verification, people lock themselves behind small lattice gates, trading the illusion of freedom and anonymity. And what remains at the end is the merciless administrator that still demands two-factor authentication no matter how secure you think you are.

A national identification number is a lottery ticket issued by the state to inventory its people. It favors efficiency over individual dignity, sacrificing privacy to turn every life into a unique sequence. Caught between government forms and database fields, your entire existence is reduced to a data point. Touted as a guarantee of security, it simultaneously casts a watchful eye of surveillance. With one number, your place in both the digital and analog worlds is irrevocably determined.