An authoritative digital address increases the power of the private sector. At present, I think it will always be easy to find a new ID-card provider if your cu

An authoritative digital address increases the power of the private sector. At present, I think it will always be easy to find a new ID-card provider if your current one locked you out for your cat-video-hating ways. Having a permanent authoritative ID could actually make it harder to get services because it would be easier for the private sector to share information about you. Imagine you got that address assigned, 42@id.tld. Now, every private company you want to do business with wants you to register using that ID. Now, when you get banned, they can share that ban throughout their network. Because every company requires you to register using your national email address for password recovery, you've created a system that radically expands the power of the private sector to profile you and control your reputation, if not your identity. Maybe very careful regulation could prohibit companies from asking you for your government email address, but I recall the (apocryphal?) quote by LBJ, "You do not examine legislation in the light of the benefits it will convey if properly administered, but in the light of the wrongs it would do and the harms it would cause if improperly administered." I prefer your proposed solution of some regulation that treats email like phone or utilities so there are a few protections before services are terminated.