While the European Union — many of whose member states are facing dire economic crises — struggles to convince the world of its significance and necessity, it has taken on a controversial new agenda: Internet control. Reports indicate that the EU will soon be creating a mandatory electronic ID system for all citizens of the European Union.
The EU’s Digital Agenda Commissioner, Neelie Kroes, asserts that the legislation will promote “the adoption of harmonized e-signatures, e-identities and electronic authentication services (eIAS) across EU member states.”
An internal document related to the proposal explains:
A clear regulatory environment for eIAS would boost user convenience, trust and confidence in the digital world. This will increase the availability of cross-border and cross-sector eIAS and stimulate the take up of cross-border electronic transactions in all sectors.
According to EurActiv.com, Neelie Kroes would later “widen the scope of the current Directive by including also ancillary authentication services that complement e-signatures, like electronic seals, time/date stamps, etc,” as the EU attempts to coerce nations into participating.
It’s worth noting that Kroes is a longtime attendee at the secretive Bilderberg meetings of elite globalists, and it seems likely the legislation will be an item on the agenda for the upcoming Bilderberg meeting in Chantilly, Virginia, May 31-June 3.
Across the Atlantic, the Obama administration has been a major proponent of a national Internet ID system, but has faced harsh backlash for the proposal. Critics have voiced a variety of concerns surrounding the Internet ID system, focusing on the power such a plan would grant to federal authorities to monitor the online activities of all U.S. citizens. When the idea was first proposed by President Obama, EndoftheAmericanDream.com noted, “The potential for government abuse of such a system is absolutely staggering.”
Additional concerns were raised over the vulnerability that such a system would create for consumers. If someone were to steal another’s ID and authenticate it, the thief would then have access to many different areas of the victim’s life.
“Look at it this way: You can have one key that opens every lock for everything you might need online in your daily life,” says Lillie Coney, the associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington. “Or, would you rather have a key ring that would allow you to open some things but not others?”
According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, if the government were to implement the Internet ID system, it would need to create new privacy laws and regulations to prohibit identity verifiers from selling user information or sharing it with law-enforcement authorities without a warrant.
“It took us decades to realize that we shouldn’t carry our Social Security cards around in our wallets,” says Aaron Titus, the chief privacy officer at Identity Finder. The cyber IDs are at an even greater risk than Social Security cards, he explains, because they involve significant transactions.
“What happens when you leave your phone at a bar?” he asks. “Could someone take it and use it to commit a form of hyper identity theft?”
European citizens have voiced similar concerns over the implementation of national ID cards, particularly as related to government control.
Euractiv.com explains:
Some member states like the United Kingdom do not even have paper identity cards, and the idea of adopting them causes widespread public opposition.
The UK briefly introduced ID cards during the second world war but abolished them afterwards. The use that the Nazi regime made of identity documents to single out Jewish people and send them into concentration camps has been a powerful argument against introducing ID documents across the Channel.
When former British Prime Minister Tony Blair attempted to introduce the idea of ID cards, a protest movement arose across the nation practically overnight.
Regardless of the concerns revolving around the national Internet ID, the EU Commission in Brussels favors the idea and intends to move ahead with the regulations, with probable support from the influential Bilderberg Group.
The internal document related to the proposal indicates that most of the EU member states will ultimately back the plan as a result of “behind-the-scene” negotiations, reports Euractiv. But the document also predicts that there will likely be some boisterous debating over the idea at the EU Council of Ministers.
