Co-authored with Cynthia Conti-Cook and Sawyeh Esmaili and published in Convergence Magazine, this piece describes how digital IDs (and expanding mDL programs) threaten to expand government power to police people’s movement and reproductive care.
In August 2025, Cynthia Conti-Cook, Sawyeh Esmaili, and I wrote for Convergance Magazine about how Digital IDs Put Health Care Privacy at Risk. While marketed as modern conveniences, digital ID systems create new risks of surveillance, profiling, and denial of access to essential health care. We traced how digital IDs could generate trails at every point of travel, housing, and medical access, making it easier for states and law enforcement to monitor and criminalize those seeking reproductive or gender-affirming care across state lines.
Specifically, we examined how digital ID systems: (1) transform ID checks into comprehensive tracking systems, (2) create a de facto national ID without legal safeguards, (3) enable law enforcement dragnets that intensify criminalization of abortion and gender-affirming care, and (4) replicate global harms already seen in places like Uganda and India.
The piece also highlights histories of resistance, from immigrant-led opposition to municipal digital IDs in New York City and Detroit, to recent momentum in New Jersey. We argue that resisting these systems and demanding democratic debate, privacy protections, and access to physical IDs is essential to preserving bodily autonomy and limiting surveillance.