Minister of Industry, Innovation and Science and Technology Davidson Ishmael has dismissed as “irresponsible and reprehensible” a voice note circulating on WhatsApp claiming a hidden agenda behind the introduction of the Trident ID cards.
In a statement issued on Thursday, he was adamant that there was no truth to claims that the Barbados Government is seeking to infringe on the rights of citizens and is spying on them, or that there is a link between the enhanced card and technology allegedly contained in COVID-19 vaccines.
Minister Ishmael insisted that the new card is simply an improvement over the current National ID card.
Rubbishing the spy claim, he said the Trident ID is a passive card with chip and pin technology, similar to debit and credit cards.
“It contains no power source, so unless it is inserted into a reader or tapped on a terminal, it cannot transmit anything, it cannot do anything on its own…. The cardholder is in full control,” Ishmael said.
He also rejected conspiracy theories surrounding the Quick Response (QR) code on the new cards.
“It is simply a way of encoding information that devices can read quickly. It saves time because the cardholder would not have to type out any information. The QR code on our new ID card simply takes you to a website where information can be verified,” Ishmael explained.
Responding specifically to the other suggestion that there is a link between the Trident ID card and purported technology in COVID-19 vaccines, the Minister said that claim was reckless and absolutely baseless.
“There is no link here whatsoever,” he stressed.
Ishmael reiterated that the card had only one purpose – to make citizens’ lives easier.
“Sometimes we need to step back and understand what identification has done for Barbados. There are a number of other islands in the Caribbean that have never had a proper ID card system. Some of us take it for granted that we can walk into a bank or any business or government office and just by showing an ID card prove who we are. That does not happen in other places. You have to get someone to vouch for you; you have no simple way of proving who you are,” the Technology Minister said.
“Our government is now building on that system that we have had in place for 40 years and which almost everyone in the country has agreed needed to be upgraded. We are taking it to the next level.”
He pointed to the Digital Nation Survey published recently by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which showed that more than two out of three people in the Caribbean are in favour of government providing digital services.
“Eighty-seven per cent said that they would be more likely to use digital services provided by government if government would incorporate new technologies to improve these services. This is what the government is doing,” Ishmael contended.
“We are doing two things here: the Electoral and Boundaries Commission (EBC) is replacing the current ID card with a new, more secure and digitally capable ID card; and on top of that, we are introducing a Mobile Digital ID. Certainly, there will be a new ID card. However, you can use your new ID card in exactly the same way you have always used your ID card.
“Our job as a government is to bring you new ways of doing things that are easier, faster and safer with the Digital ID, and once you are comfortable, you can onboard to the Mobile ID at any time – the choice is yours,” Minister Ishmael added. (BT/BGIS)
