The new Barbados Trident Identification card has gone through the wringer of public scrutiny and debate as it moves to replace the old laminated National identification card which dates back to 1969.
But given the prevailing disquiet about the new digital ID, one can’t help but wonder if we are ready for it.
To date, 177,000 people have applied for the card since registration opened last July.
The new Trident digital ID as a single source of verifiable identification has been touted as secure and containing a number of features that will reduce the possibility of it being counterfeited. It will also have much of the same information as the current one printed on the front: your national registration number, surname, given names, date of birth, sex, nationality, date of expiry, document number, other data, a photo and sample signature.
The launch of the new ID Card is to be followed by a mobile application, Trident eID, which will link with the Trident Card to allow cardholders to prove identity for online transactions and sign documents electronically with legally binding, qualified electronic signatures from anywhere and at any time.
But for some, this appears to be the rub, though innovation minister Davidson Ishmael has repeatedly made it clear there will be no unethical use of the card by the Government and that the singular purpose is to make the lives of citizens easier.
Yet, the concerns have been mounting, and so too have the theories on social media that fly in the face of fact, logic and common sense.
WhatsApp messages have claimed the government intends to use the digital features of the new ID card, especially its unique QR code to spy on citizens. COVID anti-vaxxers have drawn a strange link to nanotechnology purportedly contained within vaccines.
Then at the latest round of parish meetings with the administration, Ishmael went on the defence against the call by the Democratic Labour Party President Dr Ronnie Yearwood that Barbadians reject the card.
Making unsubstantiated claims that the data embedded in the cards are not secure, Yearwood declared: “Until the Government sorts this out and comes, explains and fixes all the issues that we have with his ID, I would tell the people, do not take this ID because we are not sure our data is safe.”
In response, Ishmael denounced Yearwood’s “fearmongering” and knocked attempts to hold back Barbadians from moving forward with the rest of the world for something as basic and as fundamental as the national ID.
The minister maintained that the digital side of the ID, which has received some resistance, has been misunderstood. He insists that the digital element is optional.
Ishmael said: “If I am sitting at home in my bed in my boxer, and I want to be able to do business with the Government of Barbados, and I want to authenticate that I am Davidson Ishmael authorising this transaction, I should be able to do that in a 21st-century world, in a 21st-century Barbados.
“If you do not want to do that, that is totally fine. If you still want to go into the bank and stand up and present your physical ID, that is totally fine. We are not forcing anyone to go into the digital side of this at all.”
Introducing a digital ID is an important step as we move deeper into an electronically interconnected age. Few will agree that the current laminated photo identification card is safe and not prone to counterfeiting. The change is due. Digital national ID cards are used the world over and there is no reason to believe that the Trident Card won’t be beneficial to us. Our bank debit cards were recently updated with chips and Personal Identification Numbers (PIN) embedded and we have since moved on.
We accept, however, that there has been insufficient communication on the part of authorities to fully prepare Barbadians for the transition, using all available methods to educate the public.
And by the public we do not mean disinformation artists and conspiracy theorists; they will construct any theory to fool the gullible.
Here, we are talking about Barbadians at home and abroad who have genuine concerns that cannot be dismissed as fearmongering, no matter how absurd the call for Barbadians not to collect IDs they have signed up for. Ministries, government departments and state enterprises have seen a rash of cyberattacks that cry out for a clearly defined cybersecurity policy framework and a cybersecurity agency, for in this era, cybersecurity is national security.
In the remaining few weeks, the Government needs to deploy its vast public information machine to bump up its communication on the Trident ID in the national interest.
But while we expect the State to move with despatch to fill this information vacuum, we do not expect citizens to heed instructions to not take the card, with just over a month to go before it consigns the 1969-2023 ID card to history.
