While the European Union sells us digital identity as a practical everyday tool that promises security, convenience and progress, behind the shiny surface lies a profound transformation of our digital and social lives - towards more surveillance, control and dependency.

The brave new world of identity

The vision sounds harmless, almost tempting: an app on your smartphone that bundles your ID, driving license, health data, school reports and bank access. Everything secure, everything under control - your control, of course, as they emphasize. A "digital you" that makes your everyday life easier, overcomes boundaries and strengthens trust in online services.

The EU Commission promises "self-determination", "data protection" and "digital sovereignty". But what if this brave new world is not built for the freedom of citizens - but for the complete traceability of their actions?

A system for us - or about us?

In reality, the basis for a comprehensive, interoperable surveillance system is being created here. What is being sold as a convenient solution is an infrastructure project with enormous social potential:

• Centralization of sensitive data: Whoever has access to this identity wallet - be it the state, tech company or secret service - will receive a complete digital imprint of every person. From medical diagnoses to travel movements and online behavior.

• Technical coercion through the back door: Officially, the use of digital identity is voluntary. But what happens when bank accounts, tax portals, job applications or access to the healthcare system are only possible with this ID? Then "voluntary" becomes a euphemism.

• Social credit systems within reach: With an EU-wide infrastructure for identification and behavioural tracking, it is theoretically possible to establish mechanisms similar to those we know today from authoritarian states - personalized restrictions, automatic sanctions or exclusions. Everything digital, everything automated, everything legitimized.

Data protection as a fig leaf

The EU prides itself on its strict data protection rules. But at the same time, the new identity system is intended to centralize and standardize these data flows to an unprecedented degree. Citizens are supposed to "remain in control" - but what does that mean if the platform on which they manage their identity is controlled by states or companies?

There are also possible backdoors: emergency access, legally regulated exceptions, intelligence clauses. History has shown: What is technically possible will sooner or later be used - whether in the name of security, efficiency or "public order".

Packaged like a product - implemented like a system

The language used to market the project is thoroughly technocratic: "user-friendliness", "interoperability", "innovation". Behind this, however, lies an instrument of power that replaces trust with control, freedom with predictability and anonymity with traceability.

It is no coincidence that lobby groups from large digital corporations, banks and insurance companies are massively supporting this project. A digital identity that encompasses all European citizens is a data goldmine for them - and a power tool for governments.

What is at stake

Digital identity is more than just a technical update to our ID card. It is a social project that fundamentally shifts the balance between citizen and state, between freedom and control. It transforms the free individual into a digitally mapped, fully analyzable subject.

What we decide today will have an impact on future generations. Do we want a future in which we can move around the digital world as anonymously and freely as we do on the street? Or are we sacrificing this freedom for a deceptive security that can be turned against us at any time?

The question is not whether we will become more digital. But rather: Who controls the digital world - us, or it controls us?