The Known Traveller Digital Identity - Part of Our Dystopic Future

It is the opinion of many experts (at least among those who are outside of the dinosaur media) that the pandemic was and will be used as a reason to issue a worldwide digital identity scheme which will be used by governments.  Let's look at one scheme that was undertaken back in the pre-COVID-19 pandemic and its supporters.

 

The Known Traveller Digital Identity or KTDI was conceptualized by a "multi-stakeholder Working Group" which was launched in 2015.  The original group of stakeholders included a wide range of governments, industry and international organizations and now serve as an advisory group for the initiative.  The original stakeholders included the following:

 

Airports Council International, Amadeus, Google, International Air Transport Association, International Civil Aviation Organization, International Criminal Police organization (INTERPOL), Marriott International, Mexico National Migration Institute, NEC Corporation, SAP Concur, Sedicci, UK National Crime Agency - United Nations Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate, US Department of Commerce, US Department of Homeland Security, Visa Inc., World Travel & Tourism Council, World Tourism Organization and Zurich Insurance Group."

 

In January 2018, the Governments of Canada and The Netherlands committed formed a pilot group to drive and pilot the KTDI concept in collaboration with private sector partners.  We'll get back to the private sector partners shortly.

 

Here is a quote from the website which explains how KTDI works:

 

"The KTDI is based on decentralized digital identity which uses cryptography, distributed ledger technology and international standard to enable an individual to self-manage trusted and verified identity attributes.  Through KTDI travellers can collect and share attestations.  An attenuation is a verified claim issued by a trusted entity, such as a government passport agency or border authority."

 

Attestations will be added to each traveller's KTDI profile each time that a trusted entity verifies a claim pertaining to the traveller.  The more attestations that the traveller collects, the more "known" that they become to the system.  Travellers will securely manage all components of their KTDI identity in their mobile device (the KTDI Wallet) and will be able to share them with stakeholders in the travel ecosystem on a voluntary basis.  

 

The KTDI will provide security agencies with early, reliable and verified information on travellers before they arrive "in country".  This will allow for expedited airport processing for pre-screened, low-risk travellers and will allow border control officers to focus their efforts on less-known travellers who may be a higher risk.  According to KTDI, passengers will benefit by having a more convenient and frictionless travel experience at the same time as they will have greater control over their personal identity information.  It will allow travellers to share information, including biometric data, which will allow individuals to pass through border and boarding checks without a need to present a passport or boarding card. 

 

The timeline for the pilot project was scheduled for testing internally throughout 2019 with the goal of completing the first end-to-end journey during the first quarter of 2020, just as the pandemic decimated the travel industry.  At the time of its conception, the pilot project was quite limited, including up to 10,000 passenger end-to-end trips facilitated by KTDI and would have operated on Air Canada and KLM flights between Canada's Toronto Pearson and Montreal Trudeau International airports and Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.

  

As is typical when discussing digital identification schemes, in this case, KTDI is being sold to the world as a convenience for travellers since it is such a waste of time to stand in line for a few minutes while awaiting a border official to examine and stamp a passport (sarcasm intended).  It is also being heavily promoted as a system which will allow travellers to maintain control over all of their private data, sharing only what is necessary with government officials.  And, if you believe that, I have a bridge in the United Kingdom that I'd like to sell to you.

 

Now, as promised, let's look at the KTDI pilot project partners:

 

Isn't it interesting to see just how heavily involved Canada is in the KTDI initiative and that one of the partner groups is the World Economic Forum which has long been a proponent of digital identification technology as shown here:

 

...and quoted here:

 

"Having a trusted, verifiable identity is essential. As digital interaction increases at unprecedented rate, not least due to the COVID-19 crisis, the information comprising our identities is being widely shared in ways that create both opportunities and risks. If designed right, digital identities can provide countries with economic value equal to as much as 13% of their GDP, save hundreds of billions of hours through streamlined e-government, and cut trillions of dollars in costs for businesses by 2030, according to one estimate. For the roughly one billion people going without official proof of identity (and the more than three billion people unable to effectively use an identity on digital channels), collaborative and user-centric digital identity models guided by shared principles can be empowering."

It is also pretty interesting to remember that this individual is a member of the World Economic Forum's Board of Trustees at the same time as she is supposedly serving Canadians as the Trudeau government's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance:

 

Given Freeland's February 2022 moves to lock down the bank accounts of "misbehaving" Canadians during the truckers' protest, it should be of concern to Canadians that her masters at the Kult of Klaus are playing a key role in the issuance of a digital identification system which seems to be focussed on using Canada as a technological playground.  I would suggest that the Trudeau government's implementation of the ArriveCan app is just the tip of the digital identity iceberg, particularly given their insistence that the app is here to stay.

 

If you have a few minutes to spare, here is a promotional video touting the need for and advantages of the KTDI:

 

In my mind, there is very little doubt that one of the key aspects of the Great Reset/Fourth Industrial Revolution or whatever you want to call our dystopic future will be the issuance of a digital identity which will be used as a key part of the upcoming social credit score program.  Once these digital identities are mandatory, we can kiss our privacy as well as the control that we currently have over our lives goodbye.