Abstract
Civil registration practice usually requires records to be kept for a very long time, or even in perpetuity. Digitization has raised the matter of the (non-)longevity of digital records because of frequent, ongoing changes in hard-and software. This has not been on the radar of the enthusiasts of digital ID. It is not-for example-addressed in the World Bank-initiated 'Principles on Identification' (endorsed by more than two dozen other organizations). Record management has been identified as a vulnerability of the Aadhaar system in India in which more than a billion people have been enrolled. The currently boisterous expectations re digital ID threaten to negatively impact civil registration, including its irreplaceable legal purpose and the importance of the preservation of records of legal identity. The article concludes with an illustration using a World Bank-funded project for Tonga, the Pacific Island country with just over 100,000 inhabitants.
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