Digital IDs Research Articles

Perception towards electronic health records & uptake of digital health IDs among the urban residents in northern India: A mixed methods study.

Background & objectives Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) envisages a unique digital health ID for all citizens of India, to create electronic health records (EHR) of individuals. The present study assessed the uptake of Digital Health IDs by the patient and general population, their attitude toward EHR, and explored the barriers to digital ID and utilizing electronic health records services. Methods A concurrent explanatory mixed methods study was undertaken in Chandigarh, India, with an analytical cross-sectional design as a quantitative part and a qualitative descriptive study. The study participants were 419 individuals aged ≥18 yr who attended the urban primary healthcare centre (n=399) and the community-based screening camps (n=20) between July 2021 and January 2022. Latent Class Analysis (LCA) was undertaken to identify hidden sub-population characteristics. In-depth interviews were done to identify the barriers to health ID uptake. Results The digital health ID uptake rate was 78 per cent (n=327). Among the study participants, those who were aware of EHR, those who wanted a national EHR system, those who were confident with the government on EHR security, and those who were willing to make national EHR accessible for research showed significantly higher digital health ID uptake than their counterparts. The themes identified under barriers of uptake from the qualitative interviews were lack of awareness, technology-related (including digital literacy) and utility-related. Interpretation & conclusions Increasing EHR awareness, digital health literacy, and enacting data protection laws may improve the acceptance of the digital health ecosystem in India.

Towards circular fashion: Management strategies promoting circular behaviour along the value chain

The fashion industry is a significant driver of cultural, societal, and economic growth worldwide, but its traditional linear approach has led to negative environmental and social impacts. This study addresses the need to transition towards sustainable and circular practices by exploring the relationship between management strategies and behaviours across the fashion value chain. Through 10 semi-structured interviews with top industry decision-makers, thematic analysis revealed eight core themes, including collaborations, marketing strategies, product-related characteristics, education and awareness, business models, integration of technology, regulations and legislation, and strategic planning. The study provides targeted recommendations for stakeholders to promote a more sustainable and circular behaviour in the fashion industry. For instance, it emphasises strategic partnerships with suppliers, waste management companies, and consumers to minimise waste and promote circularity across the value chain. It urges the adoption of sustainable materials and eco-friendly designs for environmentally conscious consumers and encourages visual storytelling for transparency. Additionally, the study highlights the need for circular business models, recommending on-demand and made-to-measure manufacturing to align production with demand and reduce overproduction. Offering end-of-life strategies such as take-back programs, recycling initiatives, and repair services extends product lifecycles and creates sustainable value. Integrating advanced technologies such as digital IDs improves supply chain transparency and accountability. These actionable recommendations guided the development of a comprehensive framework for the practical application of sustainable and circular practices across the value chain, offering industry practitioners, researchers and policymakers effective strategies for driving impactful change within the fashion industry.

Development of the Software System for Managing a Digital Pet ID

Recent Research and Publications Analysis: The shift towards digital documentation, such as Ukraine's «Diia» for human records, has not yet been fully embraced in pet care, creating a significant service gap. Ukraine, with a high number of household pets, especially approximately 7.63 million cats, highlights the need for a comprehensive digital pet management system. Given the frequent cases of pets getting lost—with low recovery rates—a robust digital system is essential for improving these figures and enhancing pet safety. When designing software, it is important to choose the right technologies for both the web interface and the backend. Django is recommended for the backend because of its «batteries-included» architecture, which provides a comprehensive set of ready-to-use tools that facilitate rapid development and ensure a high level of security. For the inter-face, it is recommended to use JavaScript integrated with frameworks such as React, An-gular or Vue to create dynamic applications that improve the user experience with asyn-chronous requests, allowing the content of the page to be updated without reloading the page. This combination not only provides scalability and security, but also effectively meets the complex needs of web applications. Purpose of the Study. This study aims to develop a software system that facilitates the management of digital pet IDs, which will integrate medical records, vaccination his-tories, and detailed activity logs. This integration aims to streamline pet care, making it more efficient and significantly more convenient for pet owners. Main Material Presentation. The proposed system's architecture will include: – backend. Utilizing Django REST Framework for creating scalable, secure web APIs that handle data operations efficiently; – frontend. Employing JavaScript, HTML, and CSS to provide a responsive and in-teractive user experience. Key Features: – digital passports for pets, verifiable via QR codes; - detailed activity logs that track and display pet movements and behaviors; – comprehensive vaccination records accessible by both pet owners and veterinari-ans; – a lost pet bulletin board that uses geographical data to notify users of nearby lost or found pets. Conclusions.Technologies have been chosen and a software system has been devel-oped for effective management of digital pet IDs, integrating key functions for compre-hensive data management of pets. It utilizes modern technologies to ensure reliable data security, high scalability, and enhanced user interaction, making it a key achievement in the management of digital pet IDs.

CLR Labs: countering the data injection threat to digital IDs and wallets

Biometric data injection attacks present a new threat to digital identities, digital wallets and remote identity proofing, which the digital ID community must counter if they are to prevent potentially massive identity fraud attempts.

How identity is evolving in a digital-first world

The use of biometric-based digital IDs is growing worldwide. This article analyses the latest developments in digital identification, the likely next steps, and how to deal with the core concerns this evolution raises: ensuring the security and ethical use of the personal data involved.

Putting People Back in Charge of their Own Identity

Onfido CEO Mike Tuchen shows how we can reach the ideal of ‘verify once, share anywhere’ digital IDs – where individuals can prove their identity in seconds, then re-use this confirmed ID multiple times.

OIX: Unveiling the DNA for a universal digital ID

Governments and businesses worldwide are seeking to create biometrically-secured digital IDs that enable everyone to safely communicate and trade online. But to create a truly universal digital identity, these individual efforts need to be integrated, says Nick Mothershaw of the non-profit Open Identity Exchange (OIX).

Digital ID: how biometrics can empower inclusion and lock-out cybercrime

Dominic Forrest, the CTO of iProov, explores how liveness-based facial recognition can be used to provide secure digital IDs for the world's population. As a test case, he focuses on the EU's huge Digital Identity Wallet project.

The future of inclusive digital IDs

Over half of the world's population will soon have some form of digital identity. So what is the best way to provide so many individuals with secure, decentralised IDs, and what role can biometric technology play? TECH5 chairman Rahul Parthe provides a full analysis.

NFTs and digital IDs: Unexplored opportunities for psychological assessment?

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have received a great deal of attention over the past few years, with the most attention given to tradable tokens linked with digital art. The applications may seem limited because most of the discussion about NFTs has been about the superficial contents of the tokens (for example, why are people trading digital monkey pictures?) without a discussion of the underlying technology. This article addresses an important question for psychologists: what else could we use easily transferrable, unique digital signatures for?

Privacy, Propaganda, and Digital ID: Why Our Delicate Values Must Be Deliberately Defended

In this paper I explore privacy as a concept that becomes relevant and sometimes necessary under specific circumstances, but unnecessary in others. Privacy, I suggest, can be thought of as the right to be left alone and is integral to related concepts such as freedom, liberty, and independence. In light of the ongoing expansion of data-mining technologies, business models, and emerging modes of governance, I suggest that privacy is simultaneously more necessary and more at risk than ever. Privacy, in other words, is fragile and must be appreciated, understood, and defended. At the same time, privacy is increasingly an obstacle for businesses, governments, and financial interests, all of whom are eager to extract our data, manage our expectations, and shape and control our desires. To achieve their objectives, I describe how these organizations have long used propaganda and persuasive techniques to shape and manage the opinions, values, and expectations of the public. These days, I argue, the meaning of privacy is being made to evolve in order to bolster these organizations’ interconnected efforts to expand their power and control and to pave the way for the imposition of digital IDs. I also reflect on the way propaganda is being used today, the ways it has been described in the past, and the ways it will evolve in the future—either in defense of freedom, liberty, and independence, or in service of organizations intent on expanding their power and control over managed populations.

Digital IDs for advanced robotics systems as a regulatory infrastructure

Abstract Artificial intelligence (AI) has been increasingly performing legitimate tasks on behalf of humans. However, the legal aspects of this task performance are critical, given the unprecedented ability of AI to self-learn and act reasonably and independently. This article therefore identifies the critical regulatory aspects of AI that authorities and policymakers should be aware of, with regard to whether AI should be regulated now or at a later stage in its development. Nevertheless, the absence of a specific law, literally designated as an Artificial Intelligence Law, does not necessarily mean that AI is unregulated. This research therefore argues that AI is already indirectly regulated in several aspects. It is subsequently found that broad regulation could be premature, given that some types of AI systems are not yet specific in their form, or have yet to mature. On a global level, it is argued in this paper that it would be sensible to establish an international organization sooner rather than later, as AI grows in complexity and becomes increasingly transnational. Therefore, this research presents some of the possible obstacles this proposed organization may face. On a national level, it is suggested that the time has come to establish a regulatory infrastructure as a pre-regulatory phase, which would render future AI regulation more feasible. In particular, AI needs to be identified under a national digital identification scheme, as this would make it more regulatable and manageable. This is a necessary step to enable the authorities to confront the myriad legal issues and challenges in the longer term. While establishing a digital ID scheme for AI systems, discussions over the liability associated with AI’s wrongful acts would be especially productive.

“Covid-19 Vaccines” for Children in the UK: A Tale of Establishment Corruption

How and why has it come to pass that children as young as 12 in the UK are being injected with a novel form of mRNA technology that is unlicensed, has no long-term safety data, and remains in clinical trials until May 2023? This article traces the path by which the unthinkable became an alarming reality between October 2020 and September 2021 and also follows developments since then. Working chronologically, the actions and claims of the manufacturers, the regulators, politicians, and in particular the establishment media in promoting “COVID-19 vaccination” for children are examined. The actions taken by policy makers are juxtaposed to scientific evidence available showing that there has never been any rational justification for the mass rollout of “COVID-19 vaccines” to children. The rollout has been predicated on shifting narratives, obfuscations, faux justifications, outright lies, regulatory capture of supposed guardians of the public interest, and mass propaganda. Evidence of actual and potential injuries to children has accumulated from before the beginning of the rollout, in spite of repeated attempts to cover it up, and yet, the under-12s are now also in the crosshairs and children are being targeted for “booster shots.” A clear picture emerges of collusion and corruption at the highest levels in forcing through an agenda that runs contrary to public health, democracy, and freedom. It is becoming clear that the rollout to children has nothing to do with “SARS-CoV-2” and everything to do with ongoing efforts to refashion the international monetary system in the image of central bank digital currencies and biometric IDs. In pursuit of that agenda, the transnational ruling class has revealed that it is willing to maim and kill children knowingly, creating enormous potential for a backlash as the public becomes aware of what is being done.

Mistrust of government within authoritarian states hindering user acceptance and adoption of digital IDs in Africa: The Nigerian context

Abstract Nigeria commenced its national foundational digital identity project in 2007 and had enrolled 60 million people by July 2021. The project, led by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), seeks to unify the country’s public and private functional identity databases, and aims to improve government services and national security. Although the enrolment process had encountered initial challenges such as the absence of enrolment centers in some communities across the country, enrolment for the biometric ID had proceeded without any significant public objection to its objectives. Following the EndSARS protests of October 2020, where youths protesting police violence and perceived poor governance were shot at by government security forces and protesters placed under surveillance, the government announced an updated national identity policy mandating citizens link their National Identity Number (NIN) with their SIM card information. For the first time, significant pockets of resistance arose against the national ID project by sections of the public who perceived the EndSARS violence as signaling a change in government behavior, and the updated ID policy as a mechanism for empowering government surveillance and authoritarianism. The resistance to the ID project marked a shift in public perception which threatens its future. This paper argues that mistrust in government data collection projects grows when data collection is perceived to be increasing government power to the detriment of human rights and freedom. It also puts forward a proposal on how to restore trust within the low-trust environment in Nigeria including the passage of a data protection law and amendments to the NIMC Act and Policies/Regulations, establishing Federated identity providers which give choices to end-users, and delinking the NIN from functional identity databases.

Analysing the impact of Digital ID frameworks on Marginalised Groups in Sub-Saharan Africa

The adoption of Digital Identification systems has been hailed as transformative for many developing countries; sub-Saharan Countries being no exception. Reference is often made to the potential increase in public service delivery efficiency and to the ability of such systems being a significant component of the Digital Economy, that has the capacity to leap-frog economies. At a national level, many Sub-Saharan African countries are adopting these programs through legislation and, as they are currently designed, do not offer adequate rights protections nor do they meet the needs of the population. It is increasingly becoming apparent that African countries face a confluence of challenges that require a more nuanced and tailor-made approach when introducing programs such as Digital IDs. Currently, 81 % of the 1 Billion people lacking legal identities and or proof of any legal identity residing in sub-Saharan Africa. Further, majority of the Digital ID systems adopted by sub-Saharan African countries require that persons registering provide various forms of formal identification in order to enable collected biometric data to be integrated with already existing identification repositories which would then be held in a central database. This would, therefore, imply that already marginalized communities, that have historically been unregistered, would remain unregistered and without formal identification. It is because of this, that the adoption of Digital IDs raises questions regarding the ability of the systems, and legislative and policy interventions, to remedy traditional inefficiencies of the lack of registration or formal identification of persons such as refugees and other marginalized communities. Further, the digital IDs bring about new challenges such as the protection of basic privacy rights of residents and citizens. In light of the above, the aim of the project will be to research and identify the implementation of Digital ID in sub-Saharan Africa through regulatory instruments, and outline any risks and challenges identified with this implementation in the relevant region with the goal to address the following questions: • How the implementation of Digital ID systems, including the legislative instruments establishing said systems, remedies the lack of registration and formal Identification of refugees and other marginalized communities, that was prevalent in the traditional Identification system. • The adequacies of legislative instruments and mechanisms used to protect the privacy of the said marginalized communities.

Analysing the NDHM Health Data Management Policy

Propelled by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Prime Minister of India launched the National Digital Health Mission on 15 August 2020. The aim of the Mission is to improve capacities in the Indian healthcare system by creating a digital health ecosystem connecting different stakeholders from the public and private healthcare sector. A key aspect of the Mission is to establish digital health IDs and a digital health records system. In order to guide its implementation, the Government of India notified the National Digital Health Mission: Health Data Management Policy (NDHM-HDMP) in December 2020. In this paper, we aim to provide a broad overview of the NDHM-HDMP and highlight related legal, socio-economic and implementation issues. We analyse the NDHM-HDMP based on five criteria: (a) legal foundation and health system preparedness; (b) governance framework; (c) implications for individual consent and privacy; (d) risk of exclusions; and (e) concerns around access to health big data by private entities. We find that the NDHM-HDMP, in its present form, suffers from a weak legal foundation and inadequate preparatory groundwork; excessive delegation; a constricted digital consent and privacy framework; over-reliance on an Aadhaar-based authentication system; and, vague systems for anonymisation and de-identification, as well as complete absence of strict access control requirements for personal health data. We recommend that the identified shortcomings are addressed prior to the full scale roll out of the digital health ID and digital health records system, in order to meet the objectives of the NationalDigital Health Mission.

Connected AR for Combating COVID-19

Combating COVID-19 requires everyone to be aware of her surroundings, which may lead to the risk of infection, such as the density of persons nearby, fever status, and cleanliness of objects like doorknobs. Nevertheless, most of these situations are invisible to humans and are not recognized by them. This motivates us to leverage start-of-the-art wearable AR/MR devices such as Microsoft Hololens with high-capability sensing technologies to understand our activity space. This article addresses our challenges to recognize such situations by wearable AR/MR devices. Furthermore, we design a secure platform named Secure Connected AR Platform (SCARP) to share the detected information among those people who reside in the spatial space, in a privacy-aware fashion if the data is privacy-sensitive (e.g., body temperature). The significant feature of SCARP is that it does not require those people to register their personally identifiable digital IDs (e.g., email addresses) to access the platform and obtain the secured information. We hope this concept helps to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection in places such as restaurants, airports, stations, and shopping malls, and bring the new normal there.

Survey on Identity Management using Blockchain Technology

In the present interconnected world, digital IDs are used to demonstrate identity. These IDs prove to be only tangentially related to the service being accessed and requires us to apply a significant amount of privacy. The current systems possess number of problems such as proxies but blockchain proves to be the solution for this type of Identity related problem.Markers of identity are often required to be very personal pieces of data. Consider a list of personal information collected when someone opens a savings account, such as address and identification (driver’s license or passport). It’s easy to take these pieces of data for granted, as we’ve generally become accustomed to handing them over at the drop of a hat. But let’s take a moment to consider what giving up these pieces of identity really means and whether is it necessary?In handing over a passport to a banker, a person gives the bank full permission to record not only their date and place of birth, but also everywhere he or she has toured.In order to solve above privacy problem and to make Identity sharing process more user friendly I have implemented an Identity Management System with Blockchain technology with the help of hyperledger fabric framework.

Estonia Goes Digital

Estonia Goes Digital

ADReCS: an ontology database for aiding standardization and hierarchical classification of adverse drug reaction terms.

Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are noxious and unexpected effects during normal drug therapy. They have caused significant clinical burden and been responsible for a large portion of new drug development failure. Molecular understanding and in silico evaluation of drug (or candidate) safety in laboratory is thus so desired, and unfortunately has been largely hindered by misuse of ADR terms. The growing impact of bioinformatics and systems biology in toxicological research also requires a specialized ADR term system that works beyond a simple glossary. Adverse Drug Reaction Classification System (ADReCS; http://bioinf.xmu.edu.cn/ADReCS) is a comprehensive ADR ontology database that provides not only ADR standardization but also hierarchical classification of ADR terms. The ADR terms were pre-assigned with unique digital IDs and at the same time were well organized into a four-level ADR hierarchy tree for building an ADR–ADR relation. Currently, the database covers 6544 standard ADR terms and 34 796 synonyms. It also incorporates information of 1355 single active ingredient drugs and 134 022 drug–ADR pairs. In summary, ADReCS offers an opportunity for direct computation on ADR terms and also provides clues to mining common features underlying ADRs.