High Fidelity? Trust, Attitudes, and ID Systems

• In Event: 479 - Section on Global and Transnational Sociology Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 08. In Search of the Limits of Postcolonial Recognition

Abstract

In recent decades pressure to adopt forms of national identification, in both Western and non-Western countries, has been on the rise. National identification measures, when coupled with private sector smart ID technologies that contain searchable databases with information on biometrics, tax records, voting behavior, and the like, spark debate as to the purposes, effectiveness, and outcomes of adopting these technologies. Moreover, these ID systems obscure the complex surveillance relationships between the state, corporate, and civil society, subsuming them under the simplistic relationship between the state and its citizenry. Expanding on past work, which finds positive relationships between support for ID card systems and public trust, this study unpacks those relationships by taking a systematic look at public trust in both governments and private companies. Additionally, this study examines the supposed relationship between public support in countries with de jure ID systems and its animosity in those countries without mandatory ID systems. This study finds that while faith in government data protection efforts are important, faith in corporate efforts are only significant among people with knowledge of modern surveillance systems, especially those with knowledge of data mining practices. Lastly, it finds that country of residence has a significant bearing on agreement with ID systems but not on perceived efficacy of data protection efforts. This study concludes, counter to existing work, that the presence of national ID systems has less an impact on attitudes towards ID cards than knowledge of collaborative surveillance practices.

Author

• Matthew McCarthy, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee