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by jeroenhd 180 days ago
There are plenty of websites and services already where you need to prove your identity to use them. The digital credentials API is an attempt to standardise that which is already legally required in the US, the UK, Australia, and the EU, except without having to upload a picture of your ID to a shady third party website.
3 comments

I've never had to upload my government ID to any site; and none of my family have either. It's beyond naive to think that enshrining such a protocol won't lead to more widespread adoption, and even legislation requiring it. It's infrastructure that is quietly being built first, and enthusiastic authoritarian governments will eagerly embrace it.
As an American citizen, I had to upload my passport to get an ETA before flying into the UK this year.

https://www.gov.uk/eta

I also uploaded my passport to Delta to make traveling to both Costa Rica and London faster this year.

https://www.delta.com/us/en/travel-planning-center/know-befo...

Have you read their document? They require Google Wallet with the Google Play Services to prove your id on your desktop computer, it's absolute insanity. No thanks.

I've never seen a legitimate use case where I need to prove my identity to use a website anyways.

The UK law is age verification not identity verification. Now, everyone in practice has collapsed that distinction, whether from incompetence or malice..
Age verification inevitably turns into identity verification. And this is by design. Age verification obviously is the excuse to implement identity verification.