Mastercard and Microsoft have just announced that they are will be working on the so-called universally-recognized digital identity. It is supposed to be a service that will basically put all the electronic data of its user into one place, allowing them to perform a variety of tasks with a single e-document, from taxes and registration to getting married (lets hope that no person will have to use the last one multiple times). Such a feature would probably make its users’ life simple – as well as give Mastercard and Microsoft access to lots and lots of personal data of said users. Mastercard has officially stated that it would never actually gather such data (of course…); it would only verify the info that the users themselves provide. Microsoft has yet to release its own official statement on the matter. The public opinion has released its own statement, though, and it can be summed up as ”nope”. People are seemingly worried that such a system would be dangerously close to the already existing one in China. There, a government-led electronic system keeps its citizens’ activities under a constant surveillance, either rewarding or punishing them with quality-of-life solutions depending on how much of a ”good citizen” they are.

Do large companies really want to rule our bodies and souls, or do they just want to improve our lives and make some money? We shall see.