The same technologies being promoted around the world to make identity safer and government services more efficient could eventually become powerful tools for surveillance and control. That warning comes from a new RAND Europe report examining how security agencies are adopting biometrics, digital identity, artificial intelligence, and large-scale data systems. Modern biometric identification is already moving far beyond fingerprints and facial recognition. Emerging systems can identify people through their voice, gait, typing speed, swipe patterns, and other behavioral characteristics, while multimodal platforms can combine several identifiers at once. AI-assisted facial recognition is becoming capable of working with poor-quality images and partially covered faces, and increasingly compact biometric technology could eventually be deployed through mobile devices and drones. These capabilities can fight fraud and improve security, but RAND warns they can also create unprecedented opportunities for surveillance and abuse when adequate safeguards are absent.
RAND's concern becomes particularly striking when these technologies are combined with centralized digital identity systems. A digital ID can provide convenient access to government benefits, financial assistance, identification documents, and essential services, but concentrating enormous amounts of personal information in one interconnected infrastructure also creates an extraordinarily powerful database. RAND warns that weak governance could allow such systems to be repurposed for surveillance or used to discriminate against and deliberately target individuals or groups. The report also raises questions about meaningful consent when people must surrender biometric information to obtain essential services. Refugees and other vulnerable populations could be particularly exposed. RAND therefore recommends independent oversight, audit trails, strong encryption, clear limits on how information can be used, mechanisms for challenging misuse, and human-rights protections before these systems become deeply embedded in society. The warning is not that biometrics or digital ID are inherently sinister; it is that infrastructure created for convenience and security can become something very different depending on who controls it.
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