This online federal item, p.26, this screen capture:
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There is a generic p.27 carryover paragraph, for concerned readers.
Mentions facial recognition, the word "privacy" is absent.
https://slaynews.com/news/biden-advances-plan-usher-in-digital-id-all-americans/
Among other points, the NSS calls for increased taxpayer funding to invest in digital IDs.
The White House is short on detail regarding this issue and privacy implications, however.
Nevertheless, the NSS does mention the Chinese Communist Party-style “biometrics” at least once.
“Strategic Objective 4.5” is a 4-paragraph section in the 35-page document that speaks about supporting the development of a digital identity “ecosystem.”
The Biden admin calls for improved digital identity infrastructure that would produce “a more innovative, equitable, safe and efficient digital economy.”
Like all other justifications for the push to adopt digital IDs, this one mentions conveniences.
It also touts “secure” access to government services and benefits, “trusted” communication, as well as social networks, and improved payment systems.
To achieve these goals, the document calls for the digital ecosystem in question to undergo “fundamental changes.”
The White House reveals that these “changes” involve bringing in the private sector – both through “close cooperation” and public-private undertakings.
The latter involves “real-time, actionable, and multi-directional (data) sharing.”
In the “strategy” documents, the Biden admin complains that today, digital identity solutions lack security and privacy-preserving focus.
https://reclaimthenet.org/biden-admin-calls-for-digital-id-investment
Like all other justifications for the push to adopt digital IDs, this one mentions conveniences and “secure” access to government services and benefits, “trusted” communication, as well as social networks, and improved payment systems.
To get there from here, the document calls for the digital ecosystem in question to undergo “fundamental changes,” and wants to bring in the private sector – both through “close cooperation” and public-private undertakings.
The latter involves “real-time, actionable, and multi-directional (data) sharing.”
The White House complains that today, digital identity solutions lack security and privacy preserving focus, and increase “inefficiency” of both financial activities, and “our daily life.” The current situation is also blamed for exclusion and inequity.
To solve this, the strategy proposes solutions based on NIST-led digital identity research that would strengthen the security of digital IDs, provide attribute and credential validation services, and update standards for the sake of consistency and interoperability.
As for privacy, civil liberties, security, etc., the document says that the administration “notes and encourages” focusing on those – this is mentioned in the context of the administration “acknowledging” that various states are already coming up with digital driver's license pilots.
https://www.dwt.com/blogs/privacy--security-law-blog/2023/03/biden-national-cybersecurity-strategy
The Biden-Harris Administration has unveiled its highly anticipated National Cybersecurity Strategy — a sweeping and ambitious document calling for "fundamental changes to the underlying dynamics of the digital ecosystem." The Strategy sets numerous strategic objectives, ranging from defending federal government systems from cyber threats, increasing public-private collaboration on cyber resilience, shaping cybersecurity norms through federal procurement, and bolstering international law enforcement efforts to stop cyber criminals, to imposing mandatory cybersecurity standards for critical infrastructure operators, pursuing federal data privacy legislation, developing "know your customer"-style rules for cloud infrastructure providers, and limiting software vendors' ability to disclaim liability for software vulnerabilities. We summarize key objectives of the Strategy and provide takeaways for businesses looking to anticipate developments in federal cybersecurity regulation.
Overview
These five key "pillars" are the foundation of the Biden Administration's National Cybersecurity Strategy:
- Defend Critical Infrastructure
- Disrupt and Dismantle Threat Actors
- Shape Market Forces to Drive Security and Resilience
- Invest in a Resilient Future
- Forge International Partnerships to Pursue Shared Goals
For each pillar, the Strategy identifies a set of "strategic objectives," pursuit of which requires two "fundamental shifts" in the nation's approach to cybersecurity: rebalancing cybersecurity responsibilities away from end users and smaller organizations and placing them on "the most capable and best-positioned actors" in the public and private sectors, namely "the owners and operators of the systems that hold our data and make our society function, as well as of the technology providers that build and service these systems"; and realigning incentives in both government programs and private sector markets to encourage long-term research, development and implementation investments in cyber resilience.[1]
The obvious concern, concentrated ID, instantly available digitally, including facial recognition, including public-private cooperation, including such provocative language as -
rebalancing cybersecurity responsibilities away from end users and smaller organizations and placing them on "the most capable and best-positioned actors" in the public and private sectors, namely "the owners and operators of the systems that hold our data and make our society function, as well as of the technology providers that build and service these systems"; and realigning incentives in both government programs and private sector markets to encourage long-term research, development and implementation investments
Wasn't in Casablanca where the Gestapo agent asked, "Your papers, please."
Back then, and there, who were "the best positioned actors" and the capability of well positioned actors is so much cyber-boosted these days. It is all food for thought.
Yet, for all we know, our smart phones have an ill-documented feature of taking a photo of the user upon first use, and uploading that somewhere in the cloud. Well, the camera is on the back side, so that's no worry, and we persevere.
Cyber privacy - is the term an oxymoron?
____________UPDATE__________
With such speculation, there are so many of "us" that herd immunity may lessen worry, but then digital data mining makes many more of "them" and with that AI makes things balanced as if each in the herd had a digital ear tag, RFID capability, and robotic tracking dogs roaming our streets. Social value metrics. China may be ahead of the US in such directions, since they have more people to track, and the sense of "control" is said to be greater there.