Digital identity you can show, limit and take back when you're done

A volunteer at a food bank needs to show they're on today's roster. A student needs to get into a building. A marshal at a 10K needs to look official to a lost runner. None of them needs a stranger to learn their full name, home address or date of birth from a scan.

This section is about physical digital identity done with restraint. We look at smart ID badges for schools, campuses and nonprofits, what a scan should confirm, and how long it should keep working. We ask who owns the record behind the code, whether the wearer can see it, and how fast access can be switched off when a badge is lost or a volunteer leaves.

We also keep an eye on wider identity and platform news, because decisions made by large tech companies shape what smaller organizations end up using.