State's new program raises a host of questions about privacy and civil liberties, and the protections and safeguards in place don't go far enough.
Imagine a world where the state government always knows where you’ve been and whom you’ve been with. Government officials can track when you go to the doctor, where you pick up your kids from school, which bar you went to, which websites you visited.
This isn’t a scenario confined to dystopian science fiction novels. This is the reality that the state’s new Mobile ID program could soon usher in.
In June, Gov. Kathy Hochul launched Mobile ID, a program that creates a digital version of your state-issued driver license, learner’s permit or ID on a smartphone. A wide variety of entities can use the app, including airports, entertainment venues and businesses across the country.
The Mobile ID program has the potential to undermine democracy, erode New Yorkers’ privacy rights and threaten their civil liberties. Gov. Hochul must halt this dangerous launch immediately, and if she won’t, the Legislature must step in.
Mobile ID programs represent a complete overhaul of how we prove our identity, with far-reaching consequences, including the capacity to monitor and track people throughout their daily life. All of this information could enable the creation of huge, unprecedented state and private databases holding information on people’s locations and behaviors.
Though the New York Mobile ID program was announced with a handful of privacy protections, they’re insufficient. Users are largely being asked to trust that the state is protecting them against the wide range of nefarious actors, like hackers, that Mobile ID might attract.
Without enforceable safeguards for how this vast amount of data will be used, processed, stored, shared or sold, the state could hand over your personal information, transactions and data to state and corporate entities.
The Mobile ID program also raises concerns over how IDs will be physically shared and viewed by law enforcement. During routine encounters with police, an officer may pressure a Mobile ID holder to hand over their smartphone, which police could try to argue constitutes a person consenting to have their phone seized. An officer could also grab someone’s phone, ostensibly to get their ID, but in effect interfering with a person recording police misconduct.
This dynamic is particularly concerning for communities of color who already regularly experience severe escalations of violence by police, and for immigrant communities. Noncitizens who recently became eligible for licenses under New York’s Green Light Law — many of whom are vulnerable to government surveillance and enforcement — didn’t sign up for a mobile tracking program.
For now, Mobile ID is voluntary, but there’s no guarantee it will stay that way. A program with such far-reaching ramifications for New Yorkers requires investigation, public input and robust safeguards — something advocates have insisted on since well before the program was launched.
New Yorkers deserve assurances that Mobile ID will remain voluntary, that they will have control of their data and that the program won’t lead to discrimination against vulnerable groups. There must also be protections against law enforcement taking possession of people’s devices when they present their ID. State officials must also be clear with the public about who has access to our information, and how that information is used.
Nobody wants a technological dystopia that puts our most intimate information at risk. Our state leaders must step in to protect us from this future before it’s too late.
This piece was originally published in the Times Union.
