Digital IDs Just Went Live — Say Goodbye To Your Privacy & Money

In 2022, something happened in Canada that should have stopped the world in its tracks. Hundreds of ordinary citizens, teachers, mechanics, stay-at-home moms, all had their bank accounts frozen for legal donations they made. No trial, no warrant, no just cause, just a government decree signed in the name of a made-up emergency. It was the first time in the modern West that financial access, the driving heartbeat of everyday life, was off by head of state for political reasons. In the book 1984, George Orwell wrote, "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever." Orwell understood what so many seem to have forgotten. Governments are made of humans and power corrupts humans. Governments are extremely useful in protecting the weak from the powerful. They allow us to act as a collective and stand in opposition to those who would conquer or just take from us. But, they also tend towards tyranny. When you remember their utility but forget the tendency to tyranny, you invite the boot upon your face. As Thomas Jefferson said, "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance." And now, with the rise of artificial intelligence, we have to be more vigilant than ever. AI is a miracle and I couldn't be more thrilled to live on the timeline where we get to see the fruit it will bear, but it won't be benevolent by accident. It will require us to make demands of our government and limit how it can be used. You need look no further than COVID to see how the government will hoover up every bit of power and authority that they can. Given half a chance, they will run every aspect of our lives that we let them. Who we can see, where we can go, and even what we can do. Every crisis makes people crave safety. Every cry for safety expands the government's control. Every bit of control they seize forfeits another freedom and marches us one step closer to tyranny. In the face of that, ask yourself, what will be the result of allowing the government to enact digital IDs, CBDCs, and overt and covert influence over the AI models that will run much of society? If we're not vigilant right now, digital IDs, social credit scores, and the like are going to become the most oppressive boot in human history, truly pressed down on our faces forever. So today, in four easy parts, we're going to cover what digital IDs really are, why governments the world over are so hungry to implement them, and how you can fight back and make sure the future is as bright and beautiful as we all know it can be. But do not skip part four. That's the go-forward plan. All right, welcome to part one. This isn't a future problem, it's happening right now. In 2005, Congress passed an unconstitutional law requiring all American citizens to be issued a national identification card. Those aren't my words, those are the words of US Senator Lamar Alexander while speaking on the Senate floor about Real ID. Real ID is not the innocuous initiative that we're being asked to believe that it is. In a congressional testimony regarding Real ID, the AAMVA, which coordinates closely with the DMV, said that once it's fully imposed, Real ID will be digitized, potentially put on your phone, made real time and remotely accessible, and used to track and control movement, purchases, and transactions. And to quote the Citizens Council for Health Freedom, one of the strongest advocacy groups for freedom in the US, Real ID could become a Chinese-like social credit system linked to a global ID. As they note on their website, the expanding use of biometric and digital ID systems are potential threats to medical privacy, patient autonomy, and individual freedom itself. Real ID opens the door to tracking, profiling, and control over your medical choices and daily life. They also note it is a blatant lie that you can't fly without a Real ID. I know because I've done it. There are in fact 15 other acceptable forms of identification, but lying about it, as Kristi Noem has repeatedly done, helps accelerate compliance. As Thomas Jefferson so tragically noted, the natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground. Said another way, it's the very nature of our government to chip away at our freedoms, and they're doing so right now. So, you know what we're up against, let's look at the ways our liberties are being eroded in this very moment. The goal is to make everything digital so that like those that donated to the Canadian Freedom Convoy, your access to things can be turned on and off remotely, autonomously, and instantaneously to ensure compliance. To do that, your activities need to be tracked, linked to you, and your money needs to be digital so it can be seen and controlled by the government. Enter digital IDs and CBDCs. A central bank digital currency, or CBDC, is government-issued money that exists only in digital form. Unlike the cash in your pocket, every CBDC transaction is recorded on a centralized ledger operated by the issuing bank. Access can be turned on or off instantly and individual transactions can be scrutinized and blocked. Today, more than 130 countries representing over 98% of global GDP are exploring or have already piloted these systems, including the US. And that's according to the IMF. China, that eternal bastion of freedom, is the furthest along with their digital yuan. The People's Bank of China has processed more than 250 billion USD worth of pilot transactions in cities such as Shenzhen and Shanghai. Nigeria has also launched their digital currency, the eNaira. Early versions required linking a national ID to mobile money accounts, an approach that caused millions of temporary freezes when data didn't match. The European Central Bank is testing a digital euro with limits on how much each user can hold offline, and the Bank of England is studying similar caps for a digital pound. A digital ID system, like Real ID, is the second pillar. It's a set of verified credentials: name, age, residency, and biometrics, a digitization of your physical features so you can be identified by a camera in addition to what the US is doing. The European digital identity wallet will let citizens log into banks, health systems, or travel portals using a single credential, but it will also allow them to be tracked and controlled. The United Kingdom's right to work program already requires employers to verify hires through a government-approved digital check service, creating another choke point. Nigeria's national identification number is already mandatory for SIM cards and bank accounts, improving how well the system works, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission, telecoms deactivated more than 70 million lines when compliance deadlines were missed. Now, as mentioned earlier, in Canada's 2022 Emergency Act, authorities froze more than 200 bank accounts linked to peaceful support of protest activity. Not even protesting directly, just supporting the protesters, showing how quickly access to funds can be weaponized compliance. Even in the United States, large payment processors have occasionally closed accounts for policy violations, and banks have just outright debanked people for having the wrong political opinions. Do you know how devastating that is? And in China, the national ID number forms the backbone of their social credit framework that can reward or restrict loans, travel, or even educational access. Each of these programs are being pitched as being for efficiency and or security, but in the end, they just offer the government a terrifying and unprecedented level of control. And that's before we even get to AI. If you were hoping that this was all much ado about nothing, because there's no way to keep tabs on everyone, forget that. AI already analyzes billions of financial and online interactions to detect fraud, money laundering, and {quote} harmful content, and it's only getting faster and more ubiquitous. All of these systems mature, and as they do, they can pattern match behavior far faster than any human bureaucracy, scoring risk, sentiment, or credibility in real time, and ultimately enforcing the whims of the bureaucracy in real time. And if you don't believe me, just think back to COVID. What insane ideas would have been mandated and enforced by AI in 2020 that by 2025 most people recognize as just stupid or outright lies. It is easy to imagine a near future where AI flags a transaction, say a travel request, or even a social media post for further review. 30 people a day in the UK are being arrested now for things they post on social media. Where is this going in the future? Science fiction has warned us about this many times before. In Minority Report, crimes were predicted before they occurred. Now, just replace the clairvoyant precogs from the movie with AI-driven predictive analytics in real life, and you have a system capable of restricting action based on probability, not even proof. You didn't do anything wrong. You just might, so we're going to stop you. CBDCs also introduce another variable, programmability. A token can be coded to work only for certain purchases or to expire after a certain date. Is it really your money if you don't control it? Look, don't get me wrong. The potential benefits are real, lower fraud, faster payments, streamline services, but the risks are massive. A framework powerful enough to watch everything, decide what's acceptable, and automatically block transactions, travel, and even punish unacceptable speech. And just in case you're asking yourself why I'm making such a big deal of this when we've already handed over so much personal information to companies and the government, consider this. If the government already had this info, they wouldn't be pushing so hard for Real ID. They don't push for information or control that they already have. You have more control now than you think you do, but we are losing it every day, and things can and will get worse if we just go along to get along. The show will be right back in just a second, but first I want to talk about something that just happened to me, and it sadly could happen to you. I had my phone hacked while traveling. It was a nightmare, and here's the thing, I'm not the exception. AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, they've all made headlines for massive data breaches and surveillance scandals. When they're not losing your data, they're actively selling it. Your carrier is the weakest link in your digital security. VPNs and encrypted apps cannot protect you from attacks that happen at the network level. Cape is different. It's a secure mobile carrier built from the ground up with privacy as its first principle. They don't collect your name, social security number, or address during sign-up. They can't lose or sell what they don't collect. Cape owns its own mobile core, which means they control everything, from what data is collected to how your account is authenticated. Click the link in the show notes to get 33% off your first 6 months with Cape. And now, let's get back to the show. So, welcome to part two. This is a game of control. In the United Kingdom, police issued over 85,000 COVID-related fines for offenses like sitting in a park or walking too far from home. That's real. In Australia, more than 26,000 military personnel were deployed domestically for public health compliance. In Melbourne alone, police arrested more than 20,000 people for breaching curfew or unauthorized travel. In Italy, drones and helicopters patrolled coastal towns to enforce quarantine. In France, they required citizens to carry printed travel certificates for every trip outside their home. In South Africa, 300,000 people were charged for curfew breaches within 6 months. Britain launched a COVID status certification pilot that required digital passes for entry to stadiums and events. Google, guess what they were doing? They logged over 2 trillion location updates per day to produce mobility reports that they then shared with governments. This was years ago. In the United States, over 23 million jobs were classified as non-essential and businesses that stayed open risked criminal penalties. Churches were closed in 31 states while liquor stores remained exempt. That's the kind of decision-making we're up against. Facebook and Twitter removed or flagged more than 100 million posts for COVID misinformation. YouTube took down over 1 million videos for the same reason. Are you really telling me you can't imagine governments triggering restrictions based on other emergencies, acute or long-standing, things like meat overconsumption, energy overusage, water overusage, wasteful spending, etc. All of those could become triggers for restrictions. And who gets to decide what's overusage? The government. COVID certainly isn't the only time the government has overstepped. In the 45 days alone after 9/11, Congress packed the US Patriot Act, which gave the government its broadest surveillance powers in US history. According to the ACLU, section 215 authorized bulk collection of Americans' phone and internet records without individual warrants. By 2006, the NSA's Stellar Wind program was capturing up to 3 billion phone call and email records every day. Air travel obviously changed overnight. The Transportation Security Administration was created in November 2001 and then grew from zero to 65,000 employees in less than a year. Between 2001 and 2011, the number of CCTV cameras in London more than tripled, making it the most surveilled city in the democratic world. By 2013, Edward Snowden, remember him? His leaks confirmed that the NSA's bulk collection program had stored more than 200 million text messages a day worldwide. Homeland Security's annual budget grew from 19 billion in 2002 to 97 billion in 2022, even after the war on terror had officially ended. What began as an emergency has become infrastructure. A standing bureaucracy built for crises that is increasingly being aimed at ordinary citizens. And when there's no immediate threat, do you think they fold up and send everyone home? No way. Every government agency is trying to get more dollars to create more programs. The nature of any organization is to stay alive and grow. That's why there was such an immediate and aggressive immune response to DOJ. I did a whole video on that, which you can watch right here. It is critical to remember that even smart people can believe really dumb things. Think about the food pyramid. That was an unmitigated disaster that almost certainly shortened human life expectancy, built on top of lies and stupidity, and propagated by the well-meaning and the malicious alike. The {quote} {unquote} elite class is so convinced they know best, and they have proven over and over they are perfectly willing to enforce compliance, even when they're wrong. The only thing that has ever come to our aid is the scientific method, and I'm not talking about follow the science, I'm talking about the scientific method, the process by which ideas are debated and tested and most importantly falsified. I'm talking about the eternal humility one needs to have burned into their soul given how wrong we have so often been as a society that ultimately allows people to discover the truth through experimentation, debate, and being able to talk. Remember, please, it was a government that made Socrates drink hemlock for teaching the youth to question everything. We would consider that madness now. It was the Catholic Church, acting as a governing body, that put Galileo under house arrest for the rest of his life for saying the Earth revolved around the Sun. That was his crime, something that we all recognize as obvious today. The modern US government told an entire generation to fear fat and gorge on sugar. And it was the FDA that approved opioids as non-addictive, then watched as millions became addicted and hundreds of thousands died. It was the CDC that told people, "Trust the science." Then fired people who asked to see the data. I could go on and on for days, but suffice it to say that dumb things get pushed on people all the time. Do we really want those same people to have total control over our lives in the form of digital ID and CBDCs? From where I stand, the answer is obviously no. That's exactly what the founders of this country were trying to get us to understand. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. So, why hand over even more power on top of their already unprecedented authority to spy on us, cancel us, debank us, and more? We shouldn't. We should push back. So, welcome to part three. Freedom is required for prosperity. According to U.S. migration data, more than 100 million people have immigrated to the United States since its founding. That's more than any other nation in recorded history by a lot. The US is home to 1/5 of all global migrants, even though we hold less than 5% of the world's total population. If people move, they basically move to the US. The question is, why? What do we have that other countries lack? The answer in a word, freedom. It's become passe to Americans at least that have grown up here and been slapped around by government debt and inflation, but the reality is, even despite that, America is the greatest country on Earth as evidenced by the data of where people move. If people vote with their feet, they've clearly voted for America. Freedom attracts talent, and talent creates innovation. Americans hold over 45% of all Nobel Prizes ever awarded in science and economics. Again, despite the fact that we only have 5% of the world's population. Of the world's 100 largest technology companies, 67 are headquartered in the United States. Roughly half of global venture capital investment flows through US firms. All 10 of the top 10 most valuable brands on Earth were born inside of one system, a constitutional democracy built on individual liberty, built on freedom. Despite being such a small fraction of the world's population, America generates roughly 25% of the world's GDP. Across two and a half centuries, net migration, invention, and wealth have followed the same gravitational pull, freedom. But freedom isn't a vibe or a throwaway buzzword. It's a system, a hyper-intentional system that the founding fathers worked tirelessly to protect from the human tendency to bend towards tyranny. To avoid that, they built the land of the free on a set of rules replete with checks and balances to ensure that power never over accumulated. To protect those freedoms and ensure we've got a shot at continuing to be the beacon to the world, we need to understand three points. One, for freedom to work, we must recognize the individual as sacred. While I'm not religious, I over subscribe to the fact that every person has a spark of the divine inside of them. We are not drops of water in an ocean. We are not a herd. We are not grains of potato in the mash. We are individual humans with agency, and it is the individual, not merely the collective, that is sacred and needs to be preserved. When the collective is viewed as a single organism, you run the risk of Mao's China. So, what if you have to starve 45 million people to death to usher in the utopia, which he did. Small price to pay, right, for collective harmony? When the individual is sacred, none of that flies. The collective is taken care of by protecting the individual and their individual rights. Two, when outcomes are uncertain, competition beats command control. Let's be very clear about the nature of progress. Everyone thinks they have the answer, but the way we actually make progress is not by listening to the people who say, "Trust me." or "Follow the science." We make progress by trying things, failing, getting smarter, and then finally figuring out the right answer. We'll get back to the show in just a second, but first, I want to talk about the billion-dollar industry you're funding without even knowing it. Most people do not understand that data brokers are making millions by collecting and selling your personal information. Your address, your phone number, your email, even your social security number. Scammers use it for identity theft, criminals use it for financial fraud, stalkers use it to find you, and it's all completely legal. That's where Incogni comes in. They track down your personal data across hundreds of data broker sites and remove it automatically. You create your account authorizing Incogni to act in your behalf, then they handle everything. Plus, their custom removals feature lets you send them any link where your data appears online. Their team then goes in and removes it for you. Take back control of your personal data. Go to incogni.com/impact and use code impact for 60% off an annual plan. Try it risk-free for 30 days. And now, let's get back to the show. No one has a monopoly on the truth. In fact, most of the things we think are true today will be obviously wrong to a grade schooler in 50 years. It's wild how often that's happened throughout history. Progress is realizing that no one really knows what's going on, and therefore, you've got to let people try thousands of experiments. People pursuing things most think are absolutely insane. That's Silicon Valley secret. Permissionless trial and error. Delusional, quite frankly, entrepreneurs who are convinced they're going to succeed. Most are wrong, the vast majority fail, talking over 90%, but a few ideas actually work, and we all get to benefit from having let them all try instead of trying to control it from the top down. America has institutionalized this process. Low barriers to entry, strong property rights, deep capital markets, a culture that celebrates the builder, the risk-taker. There are rails, to be sure, but the government works best when it gets the hell out of the way and lets the builders try to build. That's why the US produces a wildly outsized share of Nobel Prizes, patents, unicorn companies, and breakthroughs. It's not because we have the smartest government officials or brilliant regulations or digital ID or AI. The government stays out of the way. We respect individual freedom. Even China, whose political system yielded unimaginable amounts of death in my lifetime, finally had to imitate capitalism to escape mass poverty. And the result was pulling hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in just four decades. It wasn't because central planning suddenly started working. It was because they stopped central planning long enough to let the incredible individuals within their country get to work, run experiments, try things, and have the freedom to experiment and be wrong. That freedom compounds faster than the most brilliant elites trying to tell everyone else what to do. Orwell said it the cleanest. Freedom is the freedom to say that 2 + 2 makes 4. I know that sounds silly, but as we've covered, there have been plenty of times in history when people were literally killed for saying true things. And the ability to say things, even things everyone else thinks is wrong or stupid or even evil, is exactly what's necessary if you want the freedom that brings all of the other prosperity. The third idea you need to face if you want freedom to ring is that you can spot the bad systems by one simple test. Do they have to stop people from leaving? The Berlin Wall wasn't built to keep outsiders from breaking in. It was built to keep citizens from getting out. North Korea doesn't have an immigration problem. Cuba didn't build a flotilla to chase people away. If a society needs walls, exit visas, or armed borders to hold onto its own people, it's confessing that life is better, obviously, somewhere else. Now, I say all of that to say, freedom comes at a cost, and America has to decide, right now, if it's still willing to pay the price for freedom. Because digital IDs, CBDCs, and endless AI surveillance is not freedom. When being able to spend your own money or move around depends on the opinions of bureaucrats, you're no longer free. And you lose all the prosperity that freedom brings. If we want prosperity, we need a culture and legal architecture that privileges the individual over the collective, over the system itself, that gives people the right to be wrong. So, what now? How do we protect the very thing that made us the greatest nation on Earth? Welcome to part four. How to resist and ensure this never happens. In 1966, China's Cultural Revolution empowered youth guards to police thought, and millions were persecuted and even killed for dissent. In 1976, Argentina's military junta launched the Dirty War, disappearing an estimated 30,000 citizens accused of subversion. In 1989, the Tiananmen Square crackdown killed hundreds, possibly thousands, of peaceful demonstrators calling for reform. In 2022, Russia's fake news law made it a crime to call the Ukraine invasion a war punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Here in the US, the Church Committee exposed illegal surveillance of our own citizens leading to permanent intelligence oversight in the FISA court. Governments can and do break bad all the time. As documented by political scientist R.J. Rummel, in the 20th century alone, governments killed approximately 200 million of their own citizens. As I have discussed many times, including here, the West has lost sight of its own values. And as the saying goes, all it takes for evil to win is for good men to do nothing. But I'm going to believe you're not the type who does nothing. That's why you watch this channel. You're prepared to stare nakedly at the realities of the day and take action to maintain the beautiful, incredible world that we all see around us. There's no sense in hand-wringing or panicking, but there is clear sense in taking action. So, let's get to it. Here are the seven steps you can take right now to ensure our government stays on the right track when it comes to digital IDs. One, speak up. Use your voice and your vote. Post, write, communicate, vote in whatever way suits you, but don't remain silent. See something, say something. Support candidates who oppose digital IDs like Real ID. Same with CBDCs. And be sure to back strong privacy protections. And for the love of God, defend free speech. Start by defending the right for people to say things you hate. Defending things you agree with is not going to help. Show up locally. City councils, school boards, state houses, small rooms often are the places making the biggest rules. File comments. When agencies propose rules, ID payments, biometrics, whatever the case, there's often a public comment window. Use it. And tag me on X, by the way, if you see something that I might have missed. Submit FOIA record requests. If you like sleuthing and or the kind of person who filters by new on Reddit, ask for the memos. Ask for the info about pilot programs and things like vendor contracts. A lot of stuff is hiding in plain sight, but we all have to ask for it. Two, box in emergency powers. Demand sunset clauses. Every temporary authority needs an expiration date and an explicit revote. Every time there is a crisis, you can pretty much guarantee it will be used to gobble up more power and control. Limit the damage by insisting on sunset provisions. Support independent oversight. The government plays fast and loose with our data and privacy right now. Push for oversight run by people who are fiendish about protecting privacy. Require public reporting. How many flags, freezes, and denials are there? For what reason? Publish the numbers quarterly. I have a feeling we'd be shocked by the scope of people our own government takes actions against. Imagine having this kind of reporting during COVID. Instead, people were covertly censored and debanked under government pressure. Three, push back on REAL ID mission creep. Ask Congress for two actions. One, direct TSA to withdraw progressive enforcement of REAL ID at airports. Remember, it is already a lie that you can't fly without REAL ID. You most certainly can, despite what they tell you. But, in the coming years, this will be enforced more and more unless they are pressured to stop. Two, repeal or replace the REAL ID Act with a voluntary, privacy-preserving standard. Also, remind the government that the state's rights exist for a reason, that they are enshrined in the Constitution, and that a federal ID usurps many of those rights. Insist on opt-in, no biometric default to identification cards, and data minimization in any state identity system. The fourth thing that you should be doing to ensure that we fight back against digital IDs and government scope creep is to draw a bright line on CBDCs. Take a hard stance. No programmable currency that can track, score, expire, or geofence private transactions. Back bills that prohibit CBDC mandates and preserve good old paper cash as legal, usable tender for all debts, public and private, including taxes. Five, build financial sovereignty. You need to be on multiple rails here. Keep accounts at more than one bank or credit union and maintain a cash buffer for emergencies. Learn about self-custody. Now, I get it, this one is tricky, but it's wise to learn how to hold a portion of savings outside of traditional banking. Crypto is becoming more and more mainstream by the day, and it's decentralized and harder to seize. So, take the time to learn about it. Automate your resilience. Separate spend, save, and sovereign buckets, so a freeze on one of your payment rails does not leave you without options. Six, upgrade your digital hygiene. Use privacy tools like a privacy-first browser, tracker blockers, a password manager, and hardware 2FA keys. DuckDuckGo is making a hard push to be this option. They're worth looking into. Use encrypted messaging. Default to end-to-end encrypted messaging for sensitive conversations. Things like Telegram and WhatsApp are widely used for this purpose. Engage with biometrics as little as possible. Most people don't know this, but you can opt out of the pictures at the airport. Never hand over biometrics casually as they will be used to track and identify you without your express consent. Seven, define your values so you're not purely reactionary in a crisis. I considered leaving this one out, but the reality is I think a lot of our problems stem from the fact that people are reactive instead of proactive. They steer by feelings and vibes rather than a predefined set of values. As religion disappeared, so did our adherence to prescribed value sets. That's fine, I guess, as long as we take the time to redefine our values and anchor them to something specific. For me, my value system is anchored around the inalienable sovereignty of the individual. All of my thinking cascades from that premise and the premise that we're evolved creatures that suffer and that that suffering has noble causes that are effectively universal. Given that, suffering should be and can be minimized whenever possible without compromising the rights of others. This is the moment when free people remember how freedom is actually kept. Power granted in fear rarely fades in calm. Each crisis writes a new rulebook and it never tears itself up. So, as you see the debate about digital IDs raging, don't sit quietly on the sidelines. And if you need a one final jolt to get you in action, here's a burning shot of 'Murica from Samuel Adams as the parting shot of this video. If you love the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsel or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen. Gave me the chills. Harsh words from our man, but if you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything. All right, if you want to join me as I explore ideas like this live, be sure to join me for the Tom Bilyeu show live on Wednesdays and Fridays at 6:00 a.m. Pacific time. Join the discussion or just hang out and chat as I go in on the most important topics of the day. All right, until then my friends, be legendary. Take care. Peace. If you like this conversation, check out this episode to learn more. In the last year, the price of gold has increased by more than 50% and crossed 4,000 for the first time in history. This happens in times of crisis.