Apple has begun testing a new Digital ID feature that transforms the Wallet app into a centralized identification hub, allowing users to store passports and present ID directly from an iPhone or Apple Watch. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will begin accepting these Digital IDs at more than 250 airport checkpoints across the United States, with enrollment requiring a passport scan and facial-movement verification. Apple plans to expand Digital ID beyond airports to age verification, app access, and venue entry—just as governments worldwide accelerate their own digital identity agendas. Europe is preparing to roll out its EU-wide Digital Identity Wallet under eIDAS 2.0, the UK is pushing mandatory identity checks under Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Australia’s Digital ID Act is already active, and Canada is laying the groundwork to expand its secure login programs nationwide.

At the same time, U.S. states are implementing laws requiring identity-based age checks for websites and social platforms, effectively rebuilding the internet around proof of identity. Although framed as modernization and safety, these systems carry profound consequences: everyday life risks becoming a network of digital checkpoints where movement, communication, and access are granted only to those with approved credentials. With tech companies and governments aligning around the same infrastructure, a future of centralized monitoring grows increasingly plausible. Digital convenience may soon carry a hidden cost—freedom traded for verification, privacy exchanged for permissions, and identity transformed into a scannable commodity.

SOURCE: Reclaim the Net