Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), and digital IDs in particular, are growing at speed. There are many helpful repositories celebrating DPI and digital ID use cases worldwide. But what happens when digital IDs go wrong? When you can’t access healthcare because a machine couldn’t read your fingerprint? When corruption or fears of surveillance erode the trust these systems depend on?
These are real cases, happening to everyday people. But information on the risks and harms is scattered across news reports, legal filings, and research studies that make them difficult to find and piece together.
This page brings them together by introducing the Digital ID Risk Registry (DIRR) and sharing links to useful resources.
Who is this for?
For policymakers and development funders, the aim of this page and the registry is to make digital ID risks and harms visible early enough to build in safeguards from the start. For researchers, it offers a consolidated starting point that would otherwise take significant time to bring together. And for everyday folk online, it's a resource to understand how digital ID systems operating in their countries can affect their lives, so they can ask better questions, make informed decisions, and engage on this topic with confidence.
DIRR documents incidents of risks and harms associated with digital IDs, including those classified as Smart or Electronic IDs, worldwide. It draws from publicly available sources, including news reports, research publications, and legal filings. While not exhaustive (see Caveats below), it offers a useful starting point to understand what types of risks and harms are emerging, and hopefully, how to address them going forward.
A preview of the registry is featured here. Click on the button below to view the full database (Last updated: 09 April 2026).
https://baserow.io/public/grid/pOlDtR5JfPcjQpDGP-RKkEG_ur9Nejp-fWkvJFhXiCw
Do you know of an incident that should be featured in the registry? Submit it below. All submissions are reviewed before being added to the registry. To flag errors or suggest changes, email: [email protected]
https://baserow.io/form/dOcNszMJ1cNNptEX820OBAZnMMdoUG_CnxSRmTeJfcI