> If they put an ID on a sanction list, there’s a possibility to verify it

They didn't care to figure out if the Sean Byrne of County Sligo actually existed before putting the name on the list. I doubt they would bother verifying an ID number.

Plus, going back to my point about the list being full of foreigners, how do you verify the validity of a foreign ID number and address? Maybe Ireland is going to comply with a US request, but many other countries won't, and you are now back to square one.

This is the SSN in the US too though.

The abuse only happens because US courts deemed a third party liable for a lender’s error/cost cutting in attempting to verify a borrower’s identity.

The one conflating the two isn't the author, but the state. A fixation on the state sanctioned representation of someone's identity instead of the actual, living person himself is exactly what caused TFA's author troubles.

> Why did it need to go to tattooed numbers

Many countries have laws about having to carry an ID on you all the time. Not as bad as a tattoo, but still not acceptable IMO.

> Also the implication that cultures and countries which have happily accepted id numbers are filled with non individualistic people is it?

Are we really gonna keep pretending there are no differences between cultures?

So that you could not impersonate some other identity. Same in the spirit of carrying a plastic card, just without somebody touching you by force.

Either way you are branded forever.

Yes, if there is a set of strings that can uniquely identify you, and you can't have it removed, nor act like somebody else, it's your identity.

Even GDPR admits it

A government may have entirely benign reasons for creating a comprehensive population database, but you cannot guarantee who will control that database later. You have to trust the people who control it, not only now, but at all times in the future, but history does not support that.

Nazi Germany and occupied forces used census data, municipal population registers, etc., to identify and track down targeted people. The United States, during World War II, used census information to assist in the removal and incarceration of citizens with Japanese, Italian, and German heritage. The Rwanda population database explicitly classified people as Hutu, Tutsi, or Twa. This became the mechanism to target Tutsi during the Rwandan genocide. In China today, these databases are used to surveil and imprison Uyghurs.

Those are examples of official policy turned to dark purposes. It did not even include malfeasance for malfeasance or criminality by individuals or cartels who somehow gain access.