And on the bit about it being on your phone (rather than their servers), I think it opens the door to an entirely new phenomenon that either companies or govern

And on the bit about it being on your phone (rather than their servers), I think it opens the door to an entirely new phenomenon that either companies or governments want people to begin accepting: you no longer own your phone, but rather, rent it under certain conditions. Those conditions would undoubtedly be tied to social credit scores, required viewing of ads, required on-demand "checking in" with the government, and direct access to local phone data on demand to catch and prosecute political dissidents sharing critical information and memes. Example: Australians are now required to install an app that has them taking a photo of themselves and sent to authorities to enforce COVID mandates like staying in one location, even if you're not sick: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/pandemic-australia-still-liberal-democracy/619940/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/pandemic-a... Semi-related - social credit score system: https://thepostmillennial.com/watch-australian-government-plans-chinese-style-social-credit-system-for-social-media-users https://thepostmillennial.com/watch-australian-government-pl...