Article X: Identity
Section 1: Purpose
The Identity System \(M_{\text{IS}}\) establishes and maintains person-identifiers for natural persons, supports the operation of this Constitution, and provides mechanisms for authentication, citizenship, and residency status, while protecting privacy.
Section 2: \(M_{\text{IS}}\) Base State
\(M_{\text{IS}}\) maintains the following information, which may be referenced by other articles of this Constitution:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| \(P_{\text{cit}}\) | The set of person identifiers of living citizens. |
| \(P_{\text{res}}\) | The set of person identifiers of living citizens recorded as residents. |
| \(P_{\text{non}}\) | The set of person identifiers of living non-citizens known to \(M_{\text{IS}}\). |
| \(P_{\text{dead}}\) | The set of person identifiers of people recorded as deceased. |
| \(P_{\text{alive}}\) | The set of person identifiers of all living people known to \(M_{\text{IS}}\), equal to \(P_{\text{cit}} \cup P_{\text{non}}\). |
| \(P_{\text{all}}\) | The set of all person identifiers known to \(M_{\text{IS}}\), equal to \(P_{\text{alive}} \cup P_{\text{dead}}\). |
| \(D_\text{status}(i)\) | The status of the person identified by \(i\) (e.g., active, suspended, revoked). |
| \(D_\text{res}(i)\) | The residency status recorded for the person identified by \(i\). |
| \(D_\text{death}(i)\) | The verified death event, if any, recorded for the person identified by \(i\), including its effective time. |
| \(D_\text{auth}(i)\) | The authentication credentials associated with the person identified by \(i\). |
| \(D_\text{bio}(i)\) | The biometric template associated with the person identified by \(i\) for authentication. |
| \(D_\text{basic}(i)\) | The minimal basic information recorded on the person identified by \(i\). |
Section 3: Invariants
The following invariants shall hold at all times:
- \(P_{\text{res}} \subseteq P_{\text{cit}}\).
- \(P_{\text{cit}} \cap P_{\text{non}} = \varnothing\) and \(P_{\text{alive}} = P_{\text{cit}} \cup P_{\text{non}}\).
- \(P_{\text{alive}} \cap P_{\text{dead}} = \varnothing\) and \(P_{\text{all}} = P_{\text{alive}} \cup P_{\text{dead}}\).
- Each person has at most one person-identifier in \(P_{\text{all}}\).
- Each identifier in \(P_{\text{all}}\) corresponds to exactly one natural person.
Section 4: Capabilities of \(M_{\text{IS}}\)
\(M_{\text{IS}}\) shall:
- Enable any natural person who is not yet a citizen to enter into the Citizen Agreement and thereby obtain a unique person-identifier.
- Enable any citizen to revoke their citizenship.
- Enable any citizen to record and update their current residency status.
- Record verified death events, permit the correction of erroneous death records, and provide the current death status and effective time to constitutional systems that require them.
- Prevent authentication as a person while that person is recorded as deceased.
- Maintain minimal basic information for each person-identifier via \(D_\text{basic}(i)\), limited to what is required for the operation of this Constitution.
- Support optional interfaces with external systems, including international travel and border-control systems, for validating or updating residency status.
- Protect the privacy of all persons by ensuring that person-identifiers and associated data are collected, stored, and disclosed only as required by this Constitution and its mechanisms.
- Provide an Identity Authentication Service (IAS).
Section 5: Identity Authentication Service
The Identity Authentication Service (IAS) is a mechanism of the \(M_{\text{IS}}\) that provides secure authentication based on person-identifiers.
The IAS shall:
- Be available to people whose person-identifiers are in \(P_{\text{alive}}\).
- Be available to public services and private-sector systems for secure authentication and login.
- Provide secure identity verification using biometric authentication, based on \(D_\text{bio}(i)\).
- Achieve state-of-the-art security, usability, and resistance to impersonation.
- Provide the basis for identity authentication for both the Voting System and the Central Bank. Using the IAS for the Central Bank ensures that virtually all citizens are strongly invested in the security and robustness of the IAS, since any weakness would endanger the money they hold in Central Bank accounts. This high level of citizen attention to safety is therefore inherited by the identity authentication used by the Voting System, helping to protect a key requirement of democracy.