11 ms·

MasterCard-Branded National eID Card Launched in Nigeria

66 points by fredbrown 12y ago

vidarh 12y ago
While this is a bit strange when issued as a government ID, the cards seem familiar to me: In Norway, pretty much all debit cards - including ones with VISA and Mastercard - have picture ids on the back that are valid in most instances a formal government id would be, and it's the primary id document for a substantial percentage of people. It caused a few amusing episodes when I first moved to the UK and still had my Norwegian accounts, when shop clerks would look at me with a puzzled look, wondering why in the world I tried paying with an id card - until I pointed out the VISA logo.
TomGullen 12y ago
So MasterCard have in one swoop pretty much monopolised the entire payments industry of an entire country? Helping the unbanked is probably a good thing (probably) but I wonder how expensive these cards will be, or will become. I personally would hate the idea of having a "Mastercard" branded ID card or passport here in the UK. Maybe in Nigeria it's the lesser of two evils, perhaps not.
- true_religion 12y ago
  Why do you think its a monopoly?
  - serf 12y ago
    it may not be one currently, but if an entire population is forced to use an ID from a private company, and then that company provides incentive for other services formed around the ID (which was forced), it begins rapidly approaching monopoly status.
    - dragonwriter 12y ago
      The first step is itself a monopoly, leveraging it to other products is one of the dangers that an existing monopoly opens up.
DannyBee 12y ago
A bunch of college campuses (including where my ex went, pace university school of law) had College ID cards that were also mastercards. They also forced you to activate them (she asked repeatedly if she could avoid them), so you could not just disable the credit card functionality. What mastercard has done here seems the logical next step. At pace, this was called the "pace onecard".
praseodym 12y ago
Back in the nineties, when Java was still the next big thing, manufacturers promised that we would carry a single Java smartcard for all applications: identification, credit cards, electronic wallets, etc. As we now know this never happened. The biggest reason is marketing: every company wants to have their own logo on the card, which is impossible to do with a generic card. Reference from 1998: ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/software/pervasive/info/javacard.pdf
- Omni5cience 12y ago
  On a related note, I recently found out that all SIM cards run JavaCard applications. Apparently SIM applications are not uncommon in countries where smartphones still aren't common. Check out https://simhacks.github.io/defcon-21/ https://simhacks.github.io/defcon-21/
  - praseodym 12y ago
    Indeed, SIM cards in third-world countries seem to be the only place where installing applets on a third-party smartcard (i.e. the telco's SIM card) is commonplace. Smartphones are only recently catching up through the addition of secure elements in the device. Without them, the SIM card is the only place to securely store secrets.
dunno 12y ago
Well, I for one can't see any issues with an entire country of poorly educated people being given a card that with a flip of a switch, introduce them to the crippling force of 25.5% compound interest. I wish I had no morals, making money would be so easy.
- natrius 12y ago
  It's not a credit card.
  - fredbrown 12y ago
    It will function as a debit card.
    - TomGullen 12y ago
      For now.
    - serf 12y ago
      until some point at which the auto-enrollment and e-ads with "Enroll Now" and "Ask Me Later" buttons only begin rolling out, like most credit institutions tend to do.
  - dunno 12y ago
    Hence the flip of the switch. "He said the broader economic impact of the card will be felt as the previously unbanked and under-banked are able to gain access to the mainstream economy, and the visibility of their assets allows them to build a financial history and establish credit-worthiness with financial institutions." Not sure how one builds credit worthiness without credit being granted.
    - vidarh 12y ago
      One builds credit worthiness by establishing a history of deposits and pattern of payments that seems "normal".
- 12y ago
fredbrown 12y ago
More info: "The new cards carry two photographs of the holder, and a chip storing an individual's biometric information including 10 fingerprints and an iris scan using a system developed by Cryptovision." [0] [0] http://www.zdnet.com/nigeria-launches-new-biometric-id-card-brought-to-you-by-mastercard-7000033133/ http://www.zdnet.com/nigeria-launches-new-biometric-id-card-...
- dang 12y ago
  Thanks. We changed the url to that from http://newsroom.mastercard.com/press-releases/mastercard-branded-national-eid-card-launched-nigeria/ http://newsroom.mastercard.com/press-releases/mastercard-bra....
  - fredbrown 12y ago
    No worries. ZDNet offers more info.
einrealist 12y ago
Sounds like a data protection nightmare. Is there any information about the chip design and whether both purposes are strictly separated? Who is maintaining the ID information, MasterCard? Is a POS allowed to read ID data?
- seanflyon 12y ago
  What kind of ID data are you referring to? If when I swiped my credit card the point of sale could see my name, year of birth, and picture I would consider that a good thing. With my drivers license for example anyone I hand the card to can read name, date of birth address, picture, because those things are printed on the outside of the card.
  - einrealist 12y ago
    To the Personal ID data. That card contains biometric data and certainly more information that is not necessary for a transaction. If that card gets cloned, you will lose more than just money. So the probability of identity theft is much higher - each POS can be an attacker. Also, if MasterCard is maintaining both data sets and is losing it, will they be held liable for the Personal ID data too?
    - vidarh 12y ago
      While that is problematic: This is Nigeria. Given that Nigerians themselves tend to vote Nigeria as one of the most corrupt countries in the world, I suspect many Nigerians may prefer Mastercard to be the one holding the data over the Nigerian government...
vicpara 12y ago
This is a big thing. Mastercard is a global company. In Nigeria, a country that has nothing to loose and some small advantages to gain this may seem like a no brainer. However, if this new tech proves itself reliable enough I expect it to be pushed to many more countries. Think about it. A BANK will OWN your biometric data (10 fingerprints, iris signature, facial signature). Everything. And this is not a governmental entity. Nigeria, as a poor country, cannot challenge the tech brough by Mastercard. An then what would be the next step? No more cash payments? If you pay by cash the whole system would flag you as potential threat? Plus, is there any prove that access to credit for really poor people is actually creating wealth ? This is the modern slavery and anyone who has credit in west either for education or commercial purpose has felt on its own skin what means to work for paying up the debt. God help us all!
- pilsetnieks 12y ago
  MasterCard can be (and is) used all around the world as a debit card. Giving credit to the customers and defining its limits is up to the issuing bank.
  - icebraining 12y ago
    It doesn't even have to provide debit. Banks here in Portugal also issue cards for university students, in partnership with them. In the end it's just an advertising scheme, you don't need to have an account to attend school :)
- jjoonathan 12y ago
  I can see it now: for the low, low price of $40 (times three companies) you can check once to see if someone has bypassed the 30-year-old security on your MasterCard(tm)(c)(r)(pp) ID and fraudulently used it for border crossing or employment. Then, for the low price of a few hundred dollars and many hours of your time (x 3 companies, natch) you can dispute the ID usage and get yourself removed from the watch lists that pop up nasty red symbols and words like "suspected forgery / illegal alien / terrorist watch list" whenever a future employer tries to verify your biometrics. Of course, the police and TSA still get the vague but serious-sounding warnings, so you still get pulled off of planes for extra pat downs and an extra 45 minutes added to every traffic stop, but hey, at least you can get a job. Efficiency! Value creation! Huzzah!
hammock 12y ago
Another commenter notes "a bunch of college campuses have College ID cards that were also mastercards." I would just add to this that Chicago launched public transit cards this year that are also Mastercards. http://www.ventrachicago.com http://www.ventrachicago.com
ChrisArchitect 12y ago
aside: interesting to me the subhead is direct guidelines of how/what to tweet for this story.
frederickf 12y ago
A corporate branded national ID card sounds like something out of a William Gibson novel.
- guard-of-terra 12y ago
  They're rolling same thing in Russia, but the adoption in 0s currently. Not with MasterCard mind you.
taksintik 12y ago
Order amongst chaos.
declan 12y ago
Here's an excerpt from the Mastercard press release with a few more details: "MasterCard has pioneered large scale card schemes that combine biometric functionality with electronic payments and we want to capitalize on their experience... enrollment process involves the recording of an individual’s demographic data and biometric data (capture of 10 fingerprints, facial picture and digital signature)..." http://newsroom.mastercard.com/press-releases/mastercard-to-power-nigerian-identity-card-program/ http://newsroom.mastercard.com/press-releases/mastercard-to-... I wonder how Americans would feel if the U.S. government teamed up with Mastercard, devised a similar biometric ID card -- and required all U.S. citizens to obtain one to drive, pay taxes, get government benefits, vote, etc.? (I also wonder what "demographic data" referred to above means, and whether it means everyone's religion will be encoded on the ID...)
- moheeb 12y ago
  This is what should be done, and I feel what will be done, in the future. The government will become your Certificate Authority.
- serf 12y ago
  > I wonder how Americans would feel if the U.S. government teamed up with Mastercard, devised a similar biometric ID card -- and required all U.S. citizens to obtain one to drive, pay taxes, get government benefits, vote, etc.? (I also wonder what "demographic data" referred to above means, and whether it means everyone's religion will be encoded on the ID...) hopefully nauseous. a national ID is bad enough; a national ID ran by a private conglomerate is worse. The privacy implications are harrowing either way, from a personal standpoint.
- illuminut 12y ago
  Sounds like part of Agenda 21 of the New World Order
mr_spothawk 12y ago
What could go wrong? Also, could we soon see a blockchain backed implementation of this? i imagine a wallet w/ pointers to biometricChain and facialImageChain could be strung together easily enough and deployed to any national network.
robertmarley 12y ago
I was born in Nigeria and grew up there until I was 17 and from what I know about everyday life in Nigeria, the implementation of this system could be astoundingly complex. In the foreseeable future, I think that only about 20% of the population will end up using this system because for most of Nigeria, life is primarily focused around a cash economy. Nigerian life is rife with many daily issues that foster a large distrust of institutions and the government. Master Card and their POS machines, cash and voting machines would have to build that trust. Life in Nigeria also involves a lot of wary informal trading between many half-educated people (elementary school) who do not use banks, do not use any services that are provided by the government/any large institution, and do not use any automated services at all. That trust is already lost with Mastercard's association with the Nigerian government because the relationship between the people and the government is quite sour. The government, the leadership of the country (and a good chunk of the people) are daily involved in corruption. There are many things in Nigeria that you just can't actually do except you bribe, or know someone on the inside who will protect you from having to spend money to bribe. Nepotism tends to be the only alternative to bribery. This sort of thing is widespread, from purchasing a car, to passing an exam (yes, sometimes) to just using a roadside mechanic, to driving from point A to point B (you will have to bribe the police to pass a check point, even if you have no fault). Adopting a checks-and-balances master card system in this kind of a society will be ridiculous at best. The everyday institutions, and millions of people (yes millions!) who thrive on these corrupt systems simply do not want such a system. Neither does the government. The government is the most corrupt of all organizations in Nigeria. Because the problems are so entrenched, it would take a long time for a large portion of the population to start using this. (BTW The voting part of it is a joke, or maybe a dream). Master card is probably only seeking to gain with the growing upper middle class that work in a mostly formal economy and mostly live in Lagos. If this section of society adopts their system, they can seek to gain with time. However, they would need to maintain a good wall between themselves and the federal government if they want to gain trust and make not reduce this thing to a joke.

66 points by fredbrown 12y ago

While this is a bit strange when issued as a government ID, the cards seem familiar to me: In Norway, pretty much all debit cards - including ones with VISA and Mastercard - have picture ids on the back that are valid in most instances a formal government id would be, and it's the primary id document for a substantial percentage of people. It caused a few amusing episodes when I first moved to the UK and still had my Norwegian accounts, when shop clerks would look at me with a puzzled look, wondering why in the world I tried paying with an id card - until I pointed out the VISA logo.

TomGullen 12y ago

So MasterCard have in one swoop pretty much monopolised the entire payments industry of an entire country? Helping the unbanked is probably a good thing (probably) but I wonder how expensive these cards will be, or will become. I personally would hate the idea of having a "Mastercard" branded ID card or passport here in the UK. Maybe in Nigeria it's the lesser of two evils, perhaps not.

true_religion 12y ago
Why do you think its a monopoly?
- serf 12y ago
  it may not be one currently, but if an entire population is forced to use an ID from a private company, and then that company provides incentive for other services formed around the ID (which was forced), it begins rapidly approaching monopoly status.
  - dragonwriter 12y ago
    The first step is itself a monopoly, leveraging it to other products is one of the dangers that an existing monopoly opens up.

DannyBee 12y ago

A bunch of college campuses (including where my ex went, pace university school of law) had College ID cards that were also mastercards. They also forced you to activate them (she asked repeatedly if she could avoid them), so you could not just disable the credit card functionality. What mastercard has done here seems the logical next step. At pace, this was called the "pace onecard".

praseodym 12y ago

Back in the nineties, when Java was still the next big thing, manufacturers promised that we would carry a single Java smartcard for all applications: identification, credit cards, electronic wallets, etc. As we now know this never happened. The biggest reason is marketing: every company wants to have their own logo on the card, which is impossible to do with a generic card. Reference from 1998: ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/software/pervasive/info/javacard.pdf

Omni5cience 12y ago
On a related note, I recently found out that all SIM cards run JavaCard applications. Apparently SIM applications are not uncommon in countries where smartphones still aren't common. Check out https://simhacks.github.io/defcon-21/ https://simhacks.github.io/defcon-21/
- praseodym 12y ago
  Indeed, SIM cards in third-world countries seem to be the only place where installing applets on a third-party smartcard (i.e. the telco's SIM card) is commonplace. Smartphones are only recently catching up through the addition of secure elements in the device. Without them, the SIM card is the only place to securely store secrets.

dunno 12y ago

Well, I for one can't see any issues with an entire country of poorly educated people being given a card that with a flip of a switch, introduce them to the crippling force of 25.5% compound interest. I wish I had no morals, making money would be so easy.

natrius 12y ago
It's not a credit card.
- fredbrown 12y ago
  It will function as a debit card.
  - TomGullen 12y ago
    For now.
  - serf 12y ago
    until some point at which the auto-enrollment and e-ads with "Enroll Now" and "Ask Me Later" buttons only begin rolling out, like most credit institutions tend to do.
- dunno 12y ago
  Hence the flip of the switch. "He said the broader economic impact of the card will be felt as the previously unbanked and under-banked are able to gain access to the mainstream economy, and the visibility of their assets allows them to build a financial history and establish credit-worthiness with financial institutions." Not sure how one builds credit worthiness without credit being granted.
  - vidarh 12y ago
    One builds credit worthiness by establishing a history of deposits and pattern of payments that seems "normal".
12y ago

fredbrown 12y ago

More info: "The new cards carry two photographs of the holder, and a chip storing an individual's biometric information including 10 fingerprints and an iris scan using a system developed by Cryptovision." [0] [0] http://www.zdnet.com/nigeria-launches-new-biometric-id-card-brought-to-you-by-mastercard-7000033133/ http://www.zdnet.com/nigeria-launches-new-biometric-id-card-...

dang 12y ago
Thanks. We changed the url to that from http://newsroom.mastercard.com/press-releases/mastercard-branded-national-eid-card-launched-nigeria/ http://newsroom.mastercard.com/press-releases/mastercard-bra....
- fredbrown 12y ago
  No worries. ZDNet offers more info.

einrealist 12y ago

Sounds like a data protection nightmare. Is there any information about the chip design and whether both purposes are strictly separated? Who is maintaining the ID information, MasterCard? Is a POS allowed to read ID data?

seanflyon 12y ago
What kind of ID data are you referring to? If when I swiped my credit card the point of sale could see my name, year of birth, and picture I would consider that a good thing. With my drivers license for example anyone I hand the card to can read name, date of birth address, picture, because those things are printed on the outside of the card.
- einrealist 12y ago
  To the Personal ID data. That card contains biometric data and certainly more information that is not necessary for a transaction. If that card gets cloned, you will lose more than just money. So the probability of identity theft is much higher - each POS can be an attacker. Also, if MasterCard is maintaining both data sets and is losing it, will they be held liable for the Personal ID data too?
  - vidarh 12y ago
    While that is problematic: This is Nigeria. Given that Nigerians themselves tend to vote Nigeria as one of the most corrupt countries in the world, I suspect many Nigerians may prefer Mastercard to be the one holding the data over the Nigerian government...

vicpara 12y ago

This is a big thing. Mastercard is a global company. In Nigeria, a country that has nothing to loose and some small advantages to gain this may seem like a no brainer. However, if this new tech proves itself reliable enough I expect it to be pushed to many more countries. Think about it. A BANK will OWN your biometric data (10 fingerprints, iris signature, facial signature). Everything. And this is not a governmental entity. Nigeria, as a poor country, cannot challenge the tech brough by Mastercard. An then what would be the next step? No more cash payments? If you pay by cash the whole system would flag you as potential threat? Plus, is there any prove that access to credit for really poor people is actually creating wealth ? This is the modern slavery and anyone who has credit in west either for education or commercial purpose has felt on its own skin what means to work for paying up the debt. God help us all!

pilsetnieks 12y ago
MasterCard can be (and is) used all around the world as a debit card. Giving credit to the customers and defining its limits is up to the issuing bank.
- icebraining 12y ago
  It doesn't even have to provide debit. Banks here in Portugal also issue cards for university students, in partnership with them. In the end it's just an advertising scheme, you don't need to have an account to attend school :)
jjoonathan 12y ago
I can see it now: for the low, low price of $40 (times three companies) you can check once to see if someone has bypassed the 30-year-old security on your MasterCard(tm)(c)(r)(pp) ID and fraudulently used it for border crossing or employment. Then, for the low price of a few hundred dollars and many hours of your time (x 3 companies, natch) you can dispute the ID usage and get yourself removed from the watch lists that pop up nasty red symbols and words like "suspected forgery / illegal alien / terrorist watch list" whenever a future employer tries to verify your biometrics. Of course, the police and TSA still get the vague but serious-sounding warnings, so you still get pulled off of planes for extra pat downs and an extra 45 minutes added to every traffic stop, but hey, at least you can get a job. Efficiency! Value creation! Huzzah!

hammock 12y ago

Another commenter notes "a bunch of college campuses have College ID cards that were also mastercards." I would just add to this that Chicago launched public transit cards this year that are also Mastercards. http://www.ventrachicago.com http://www.ventrachicago.com

ChrisArchitect 12y ago

aside: interesting to me the subhead is direct guidelines of how/what to tweet for this story.

frederickf 12y ago

A corporate branded national ID card sounds like something out of a William Gibson novel.

guard-of-terra 12y ago
They're rolling same thing in Russia, but the adoption in 0s currently. Not with MasterCard mind you.

taksintik 12y ago

Order amongst chaos.

declan 12y ago

Here's an excerpt from the Mastercard press release with a few more details: "MasterCard has pioneered large scale card schemes that combine biometric functionality with electronic payments and we want to capitalize on their experience... enrollment process involves the recording of an individual’s demographic data and biometric data (capture of 10 fingerprints, facial picture and digital signature)..." http://newsroom.mastercard.com/press-releases/mastercard-to-power-nigerian-identity-card-program/ http://newsroom.mastercard.com/press-releases/mastercard-to-... I wonder how Americans would feel if the U.S. government teamed up with Mastercard, devised a similar biometric ID card -- and required all U.S. citizens to obtain one to drive, pay taxes, get government benefits, vote, etc.? (I also wonder what "demographic data" referred to above means, and whether it means everyone's religion will be encoded on the ID...)

moheeb 12y ago
This is what should be done, and I feel what will be done, in the future. The government will become your Certificate Authority.
serf 12y ago
> I wonder how Americans would feel if the U.S. government teamed up with Mastercard, devised a similar biometric ID card -- and required all U.S. citizens to obtain one to drive, pay taxes, get government benefits, vote, etc.? (I also wonder what "demographic data" referred to above means, and whether it means everyone's religion will be encoded on the ID...) hopefully nauseous. a national ID is bad enough; a national ID ran by a private conglomerate is worse. The privacy implications are harrowing either way, from a personal standpoint.
illuminut 12y ago
Sounds like part of Agenda 21 of the New World Order

mr_spothawk 12y ago

What could go wrong? Also, could we soon see a blockchain backed implementation of this? i imagine a wallet w/ pointers to biometricChain and facialImageChain could be strung together easily enough and deployed to any national network.

robertmarley 12y ago

I was born in Nigeria and grew up there until I was 17 and from what I know about everyday life in Nigeria, the implementation of this system could be astoundingly complex. In the foreseeable future, I think that only about 20% of the population will end up using this system because for most of Nigeria, life is primarily focused around a cash economy. Nigerian life is rife with many daily issues that foster a large distrust of institutions and the government. Master Card and their POS machines, cash and voting machines would have to build that trust. Life in Nigeria also involves a lot of wary informal trading between many half-educated people (elementary school) who do not use banks, do not use any services that are provided by the government/any large institution, and do not use any automated services at all. That trust is already lost with Mastercard's association with the Nigerian government because the relationship between the people and the government is quite sour. The government, the leadership of the country (and a good chunk of the people) are daily involved in corruption. There are many things in Nigeria that you just can't actually do except you bribe, or know someone on the inside who will protect you from having to spend money to bribe. Nepotism tends to be the only alternative to bribery. This sort of thing is widespread, from purchasing a car, to passing an exam (yes, sometimes) to just using a roadside mechanic, to driving from point A to point B (you will have to bribe the police to pass a check point, even if you have no fault). Adopting a checks-and-balances master card system in this kind of a society will be ridiculous at best. The everyday institutions, and millions of people (yes millions!) who thrive on these corrupt systems simply do not want such a system. Neither does the government. The government is the most corrupt of all organizations in Nigeria. Because the problems are so entrenched, it would take a long time for a large portion of the population to start using this. (BTW The voting part of it is a joke, or maybe a dream). Master card is probably only seeking to gain with the growing upper middle class that work in a mostly formal economy and mostly live in Lagos. If this section of society adopts their system, they can seek to gain with time. However, they would need to maintain a good wall between themselves and the federal government if they want to gain trust and make not reduce this thing to a joke.