Public health or private wealth? How digital vaccine passports pave way for unprecedented surveillance capitalism

JEREMY LOFFREDO AND MAX BLUMENTHAL·OCTOBER 19, 2021

“We must avoid building digital identity systems and infrastructure in a way that further expands and entrenches the surveillance state"

“我們必須避免以進一步擴張和鞏固監控狀態的方式構建數碼身份系統和基礎設施”😂😥

(摘錄)

The titans of global capitalism are exploiting the Covid-19 crisis to institute social credit-style digital ID systems across the West.

全球資本主義巨頭正在利用冠狀病毒危機在整個西方建立社會信用式的數碼身份系統

The death by starvation of Etwariya Devi, a 67-year-old widow from the rural Indian state of Jharkhand, might have passed without notice had it not been part of a more widespread trend.

印度賈坎德邦來自農村的 67 歲寡婦Etwariya Devi 因飢餓死亡，如果這不是更廣泛趨勢的一部份，可能會在沒有注視的情況下過去

Like 1.3 billion of her fellow Indians, Devi had been pushed to enroll in a biometric digital ID system called Aadhaar in order to access public services, including her monthly allotment of 25kg of rice. When her fingerprint failed to register with the shoddy system, Devi was denied her food ration. Throughout the course of the following three months in 2017, she was repeatedly refused food until she succumbed to hunger, alone in her home.

像她的 13 億印度同胞一樣，Devi 被推去加入一個名為 Aadhaar 的生物識別數碼身份系統以獲得公共服務，包括她每月的 25 公斤大米分配。當她的指紋未能在劣質系統中登記時，Devi 被拒絶了她的食物配給。在 2017 年繼後的三個月全個過程裡，她重覆地被拒絕食物，直到她屈服於飢餓獨自死在裏家。

Premani Kumar, a 64-year-old woman also from Jharkhand, met the same demise as Devi, dying of hunger and exhaustion the same year after the Aadhaar system transferred her pension payments to another person without her permission, while cutting off her monthly food rations.

亦來自賈坎德邦的 64 歲婦女 Premani Kumar 與 Devi 遭遇同樣的死亡，同年在 Aadhaar 系統未經她許可將她的養老金轉移給另一個人，同時切斷了她每月的食物分配，之後她死於飢餓和精疲力竭

A similarly cruel fate was reserved for Santoshi Kumari, an 11-year-old girl, also from Jharkhand, who reportedly died begging for rice after her family’s ration card was canceled because it had not been linked to their Aadhaar digital ID.

在賈坎德邦面臨類似的殘酷命運是 11 歲女孩 Santoshi Kumari ，據報因為她家人的 Aadhaar 數碼身份證沒有與系統聯繋，繼而他們的配給卡被取消後死在乞討米飯時

These three heart-rending casualties were among a spate of deaths in rural India in 2017 which came as a direct result of the Aadhaar digital ID system.

這三宗令人心碎的傷亡是 2017 年印度農村發生的一連串死亡事件的其中，這都是 Aadhaar 數碼身份系統的直接結果

With over one billion Indians in its database, Aadhaar is the largest biometric digital ID program ever constructed. Besides serving as a portal to government services, it tracks users’ movements between cities, their employment status, and purchasing records. It is a de facto social credit system that serves as the key entry point for accessing services in India.

Aadhaar 數據庫中有超過 10 億印度人，是歷來建造最大的生物識別數碼身份程式。不單只作為得到政府服務的門戶，它還追踪用戶在城市之間的移動、他們的就業狀況和購買記錄。這是一個事實上的社會信用系統，是在印度獲得服務的關鍵進入點

Having branded Aadhaar’s creator, fellow billionaire Nandan Nilekani, as a “hero,” initiatives backed by tech oligarch Bill Gates have long sought to bring the “Aadhaar approach to other countries.” With the onset of the Covid-19 crisis, Gates and other mavens of the digital ID industry have an unprecedented opportunity to introduce their programs into the wealthy countries of the Global North.

在將 Aadhaar 的創造者、億萬富豪Nandan Nilekani 稱為“英雄”之後，倡議由科技寡頭比爾蓋茨支持, 他長期以來一直試圖將“Aadhaar 做法帶往其它國家/地區”。隨著冠狀病毒危機的爆發，蓋茨和數碼身份行業的其他磚家有了前所未有的機會將他們的項目引入全球北部的富裕國家。

(~機會? 由病毒到疫苗到疫苗護照到將來正式面世的獸印, 每一個環節蓋茨都有份插手噃😅)