Digital IDs said to boost economies, but privacy is at risk

(FILES) This file photo taken on January 18, 2017 shows an Indian visitor giving a thumb impression to withdraw money from his bank account with his Aadhaar or Unique Identification (UID) card during a Digi Dhan Mela, held to promote digital payment, in Hyderabad. India's Supreme Court ruled August 24 that citizens have a constitutional right to privacy, a landmark verdict that could have wide-reaching implications for the government's biometric programme which holds data on over one billion people. / AFP PHOTO / Noah SEELAM

LONDON: Developing countries swapping paper documents for digital identification systems could see their economies grow up to 13% by 2030, researchers said on Jan 23 in the first study to assess the technology’s economic value.

But the report’s authors and rights campaigners warned such systems also raised privacy concerns as they could be misused to track and profile people.