Tech Talks Is a Digital ID a Good or Bad Thing For You?
Jan 26, 2026
Jarek Sygitowicz, co-founder and chief strategy officer at Authologic, explains digital identity and verifiable credentials. He compares identity to payments and explores identity wallets, EU eID rules, and why taking photos of IDs is risky. He also discusses privacy advantages over big tech and the need for aggregator APIs and sensible regulation.
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Public Tracking Vs. Controlled Identity
- People often accept invasive private data collection as 'normal' while fearing government digital IDs.
- Jarek argues modern eIDs can actually reduce data exposure by enabling selective disclosure.
Poland's High eID Adoption
- Poland's identity wallet (mObywatel) has 10 million users and is used 1 million times daily.
- Jarek credits this to wallets supporting both onboarding and authentication use cases.
Selective Disclosure Cuts Excess Data
- Current ID-verification often asks for more data than needed, like addresses when proving age.
- Jarek explains selective disclosure and verifiable credentials let users share only required claims securely.