CDT Comments to the EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council Regarding Impact on Human Rights of Digital Identity Technology

The EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council (TTC) has been working to identify areas of cross-governmental cooperation on digital identity technology, including a mapping exercise comparing some parts of existing regulation and standards. CDT welcomes cross-governmental transatlantic coordination of technology standards for digital identity. Driven by a combination of legislative proposals, technical developments, governmental priorities, and industry opportunities, technology standards for digital identity are seeing intense activity. The multiple ongoing standards processes could benefit from coordination, engagement, direction, and support, particularly in promoting key public interest values.

We filed this brief comment to highlight the important steps needed to protect and promote privacy, free expression, and other human rights in the development of standards and broader adoption of digital identity, particularly high-assurance government-issued digital credentials. The TTC has yet to focus on those issues in the mapping exercise, and it should not delay any further that necessary work. In order to be relevant and to provide support to the ongoing cross-sector, multistakeholder efforts to design effective digital identity standards, the TTC should contribute to identifying how protections for privacy and human rights will work across U.S. and EC jurisdictions and what is needed in technology standards to enable those protections.

How people can use technology to identify themselves, in interacting with both governments and businesses, is a question of great public interest, given the potential risks to privacy, free expression, and freedom from discrimination. CDT will continue to work with civil society partners and other stakeholders to ensure that government legislation, technical standards, administrative rules, and technical implementations are all designed to protect human rights in presenting digital credentials.

Read the full comments here.