Japan Steps Up Push To Get Public Buy-in To Digital IDs (apnews.com) 56
Japan has stepped up its push to catch up on digitization by telling a reluctant public they have to sign up for digital IDs or possibly lose access to their public health insurance. From a report: As the naming implies, the initiative is about assigning numbers to people, similar to Social Security numbers in the U.S. Many Japanese worry the information might be misused or that their personal information might be stolen. Some view the My Number effort as a violation of their right to privacy. So the system that kicked off in 2016 has never fully caught on. Fax machines are still commonplace, and many Japanese conduct much of their business in person, with cash. Some bureaucratic procedures can be done online, but many Japanese offices still require "inkan," or seals for stamping, for identification, and insist on people bringing paper forms to offices.
Now the government is asking people to apply for plastic My Number cards equipped with microchips and photos, to be linked to drivers licenses and the public health insurance plans. Health insurance cards now in use, which lack photos, will be discontinued in late 2024. People will be required to use My Number cards instead. That has drawn a backlash, with an online petition demanding a continuation of the current health cards drawing more than 100,000 signatures in a few days.
Now the government is asking people to apply for plastic My Number cards equipped with microchips and photos, to be linked to drivers licenses and the public health insurance plans. Health insurance cards now in use, which lack photos, will be discontinued in late 2024. People will be required to use My Number cards instead. That has drawn a backlash, with an online petition demanding a continuation of the current health cards drawing more than 100,000 signatures in a few days.
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Indeed. Everybody will still have a SSN, just without the benefits that the Japanese get.
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This isn't the Number of the Beast here. Many people already have done similar so their vaccination cards are on their phone's wallet extensions to make life easier when attending some event. If it took having a number on a phone for workable healthcare, sign me up. Most US healthcare policies these days are HDHP policies which mean they don't pay a cent until you spend $3000+ of your own money, and from there, you have a 50% co-pay... and that's with a policy that costs $2000/month.
Even if I made half a
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The Nazis had id's that they made the Jews wear (Score:1)
The Nazis had id's that they made the Jews wear
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The Nazis had id's that they made the Jews wear
Yeah. you tell 'em. Just like driver's licenses.
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Yeah, and they got a permanent health care Endlösung for it.
C'mon, try to find an analogy that is at least remotely within the same ballpark. I don't even ask for one that is apt, I'd already be happy with one that at least plays in the same league.
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Except that in places where the government actually works for the people tends to se benefits from digital government services.
Like here in Finland I can do most government related things at any time from anywhere with a phone or a computer with strong authentication, In our case it is mostly bank-IDs though used to verify who you are.
No one is forcing you to use those though, you can always queue up or other ways, the digital services are just much easier and faster to use so almost everyone uses them.
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You write that as if such a place exists. By its nature, it can't.
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If crime did not exist in Sweden, their electorate wouldn't have voted in a right-wing anti-immigrant government in in the last election right?
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It can and they do exist.
What you need is:
-The voters to be by and large able to understand what an how the government does.
-An election system that encourages multiple views to be represented. So no first past the post.
-People caring about the process of governing
-People and media holding politicians accountable for what they do and say.
And likely some other thing that I did not think of. But those should be the major ones.
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I would not say it is a good model that applies everywhere.
Every country has to find their own way, but just getting the basics right would help in many countries.
That is things like: low corruption, high engagement in the political system and a proportional representation system. But the total mix is something the country has to find for themselves.
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It's much nicer downloading pre-filled tax forms, providing banking information for direct deposit, paying taxes, renewing licenses, etc. online rather than waiting in line at an office.
When I was a kid we had health care cards without pictures. You didn't actually need the card either, my father just had all of our numbers written on a piece of paper in his wallet. Eventually they replaced them with cards with pictures though. Too many Americans sneaking in for treatment.
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mark of the beast with 1984 level tracking (Score:1)
mark of the beast with 1984 level tracking
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He will? Must be yet another "religion of peace" then...
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Nonsense. You can track people much, much easier by using other characteristics. These numbers are about making bureaucracy more efficient, nothing else. You just have no clue how things actually work and hence are barking up entirely the wrong tree.
I'm not sure which is worse for privacy (Score:1)
This, or requiring everyone to give the government their original "digital IDs" aka fingerprints.
So bad you have to Extort people (Score:2, Insightful)
If your product is so bad that you have to extort people into using it, cancel the product. If you work for the government, you should be fired for suggesting this.
Also, it may not be common knowledge, but it is pretty easy to sabotage these kinds of cards. Shine a light through any chipped card (credit card for example) and you can see the hidden wires. Drill a tiny hole half way through the card where the wire is and cover it with a bit of nail polish of the appropriate color. The chip no longer work
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You are what I call "irrelevantly correct". Everything you said is entirely true, and you are very knowledgeable. I am impressed. But people complaining about the chips are not objecting to the database - those existed before the chips and are much harder to deny access. Do business with anyone and they have the right to remember what you did.
But the RFID antennas are a whole separate issue. That can let people get your information without you realizing it. They sell souped up readers that can have 30
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If your _sole_ worry is remote reading of RFID tokens on your person, then you are exactly the kind of person who needs a Faraday cage wallet.
Yep. Or keep your card in a shielded sleeve.
Or even wrap it in aluminum foil.
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If your product is so bad that you have to extort people into using it, cancel the product. If you work for the government, you should be fired for suggesting this.
Most governments across the world are pretty arrogant, though. Without exception. The vast majority has a governing class... not just politicians and the rich, but also the administrative class in the government... and their attitude is "The rubes will do what they're told, or else". You can apply this to just about any Alphabet Agency here in the US as well, from the FBI right down to the USDA.
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If your product is so bad that you have to extort people into using it, cancel the product.
Have you ever been through a system migration? Idiots running ancient versions of Red Hat on ancient hardware will kick and scream and refuse to migrate because they "don't have time". They continue like this until not only is the software not supported but the hardware isn't even manufactured anymore so used parts costing ungodly sums have to be purchased while production goes offline. Is there anything wrong with the new hardware or software? No really, it just required more effort than zero and "what's
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Not really. Two human resources pay heavily into this:
1. People hate change. Especially change from a long established system in which they can't see a problem.
2. People rarely vote for their collective benefit.
People generally have resisted every move to digitisation in every country by every government all over the world. Despite the fact that in most cases it would be for their benefit.
Just look at the pedestrianisation of shipping strips. Shop keepers are the most vocally against it with claims they wil
Hey, a digital ID is a great thing! (Score:2)
Provided you trust your government to actually be capable and willing of using it for your benefit.
Guess why people are opposed to it. Hint: If you treat your citizens like subjects, don't expect them to cooperate with you more than they absolutely have to. Treat people like people and you'll be amazed just how much you can ask from them.
Coming soon to the USofA (Score:1)
https://justthenews.com/politi... [justthenews.com]
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Networks never go down in Japan (Score:2)
Quality matters to Japanese, unlike the US.
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Insurance (Score:2)
Tell them the alternative is American style health insurance, that will get them onboard.
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