Approved Tech Citizen Registration Interface (CRI)

[Dark Forces]

"Chain codes are like... a way for the government to put it's stamp on you.
A digital identity you can't hide."
- Makko Vyres, Jedi Knight​

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: To flesh out how the Galactic Empire tracks and controls its citizens.
• Image Source:
  • Cyber-Techwear.com, edited in GIMP
• Canon Link: N/A
• Permissions: N/A
• Primary Source:
  • Chain code
  • Electro-tattoo
  • System Identification Number (SIN)

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

• Manufacturer: The Galactic Empire
• Affiliation: The Galactic Empire
• Market Status: Closed-Market - available to Imperial citizens at official offices
  • Galactic Empire faction members are welcome to use them freely
  • Non-members should coordinate with the faction for a plausible way to get one
• Model: CRI Electro-tattoo
• Modularity: Yes - the data in the tattoo can be updated at COMLIT offices
• Production: Mass-Produced
• Material:
  • Insulated Circuitry
  • Data-link
  • Electrodes

SPECIAL FEATURES

• The CRI contains a wealth of everyday data about its bearer. It effectively eliminates the need to carry any government documents; if bearers need to show a passport, driver's license, birth certificate, or medical record, they can simply place the CRI under the appropriate scanner to have that information automatically read. The CRI can also contain security clearance and travel authorization; scanning it for approval is a routine part of moving around Imperial systems.

• The CRI also links to the wearer's financial information. Hard currency, which can easily be used by criminals to keep their transactions off-book and under the table, is effectively obsolete in the Empire; instead, all official merchants only accept direct credit transfers, initiated with a swipe of the CRI. Credit checks can be initiated in the same way. The CRI also contains proof of ownership of the bearer's assets, from speeders to starships to houses.

• As convenient as it can be, the CRI's true purpose is to log its bearer's movements and actions. Every swipe of the CRI, whether to buy breakfast or to board an interplanetary shuttle, is recorded and added to a vast Imperial Security Bureau database. The information in the CRI is also instantly checked against this database, to ensure that no fraud or tampering has occurred. This allows the Empire to know what its citizens are up to, and where they are, at all times.

STRENGTHS

• Convenient: The CRI really does, in many ways, make life easier for wearers. They have everything they need to go about their day literally installed into their arm. There can be no question of losing their ID or misplacing a credit chip.

• Tamper-Resistant: A CRI is difficult to hack. Attempting to do so requires flaying the skin to fully expose to electro-tattoo and then bypassing military-grade encryption protocols. If the attempt is detected, the CRI bricks itself.

• Ion-Resistant: Simple shocks or ion blasts that strike the bearer's body will not fry a CRI, which is well-insulated. Only direct, point-blank application of an ion or electrical weapon to the surface of the tattoo will burn it out.

WEAKNESSES

• Inconvenient Updates: When a major life event happens, an Imperial citizen cannot simply send off a form for government approval; instead, they must travel to a COMLIT office to have the data on their CRI officially updated by the agency.

• Dangerous to Mess With: Hacking a CRI is not only a crime, but a dangerous proposition. If the attempt is detected and the CRI fries itself, burning out its circuits, the process causes painful and potentially harmful shocks to the bearer.

DESCRIPTION
A Citizen Registration Interface (CRI, pronounced like "cry") is a sophisticated electro-tattoo embedded in the left forearm (or equivalent limb for non-humanoid species) of the wearer. The tattoo is programmed with a wide range of information essential for daily life; it serves as a birth certificate, passport, driver's license, criminal record, list of assets, medical record, bank card, and more. Citizens boarding public transit or interplanetary shuttles pass it over scanners to authorize and record their travel. Citizens buying groceries or speeders wave it over similar scanners to conduct credit checks and spend credits.

In Imperial propaganda, the CRI is the ultimate convenience. There is no need to carry datapads full of important documentation, or to walk around with credit chips that could be lost or stolen; everything a citizen needs to talk to a shopkeeper, doctor, law enforcement officer, or government clerk is quite literally within arm's reach at all times. Identity theft is all but impossible, and outside infiltration is extremely difficult; anyone who is not who they claim to be will soon be revealed, since a CRI can only be implanted or updated at an official office of the Commission for Logistics, Industry and Transportation (COMLIT).

Of course, convenience has little to do with the true reasoning behind the CRI system. Instead, the system exists to track and surveil the Empire's civilian population. Every time a citizen passes through a checkpoint, whether on their way to work or on their way to another star system, they must swipe their embedded CRI - logging their location in the vast population database of the Imperial Security Bureau. Since every credit transaction is conducted and recorded through the CRI, all can be monitored for illegal activity. No official storefront accepts hard currency, making it difficult to buy and sell off the books.

In order to change their place of residence or their occupation, to buy a vehicle or enter schooling, to get married or have children, citizens must have their CRI updated by COMLIT. This is an efficient process involving filling out a form at a COMLIT office and, after approval for the change, inserting the tattooed arm into an official droid booth for a rapid and painless data update. Approval, of course, is not guaranteed. The Empire's labyrinthine bureaucracy closely monitors and controls the population, ensuring that the business of the state is run efficiently - regardless of the effects on individual freedoms.

Attempting to meddle with the data content of a CRI without the benefit of official tools is dangerous. To prevent identity theft, each CRI is programmed to scramble itself if it detects unauthorized access, burning itself out - and causing painful, potentially fatal shocks to its bearer in the process. Tampering with a CRI is a serious crime in the Empire, punishable by reeducation and forced labor, and anyone with a scrambled CRI is assumed to have committed this crime. Similarly, anyone whose CRI has been altered in a way that does not match the central Imperial database is flagged as a criminal at the next checkpoint.

Successfully forging a CRI in order to pass as an Imperial citizen - or a different Imperial citizen - is a difficult, multi-step process. First, a CRI must be obtained - either by stealing and correctly installing a blank CRI from a secure, well-guarded COMLIT facility, or by actually managing to reprogram one that is already installed in a bearer's arm. This generally requires both a highly-skilled slicer and a very careful surgeon. But this is only half the battle; if the record the CRI is tied to doesn't exist, or doesn't fully match the one in the ISB database, the false CRI will rapidly be detected when the bearer starts scanning it.

Only by altering both the CRI itself and the ISB record of the information it should contain can a criminal or outside infiltrator fully pass as an Imperial in good standing. This is a daunting prospect, likely involving infiltration of multiple secure facilities and encrypted networks. Yet any spy attempting to infiltrate Imperial territory must attempt this challenge; having a CRI is mandatory for every Imperial citizen, so anyone in an Imperial-controlled system who lacks a CRI can easily be identified as an outsider. The Empire may not have an impenetrable Blackwall around it, but intruders within its borders will be found.

HISTORY
In the early days of Sheev Palpatine's Galactic Empire, when governmental systems were in transition from the old laws of the Galactic Republic to the more restrictive policies of the New Order, Vice Admiral Edmon Rampart first introduced the Chain Code. This new form of Imperial I.D. was based on an individual's biometrics, with different digits accounting for species, biological sex, age, and other such information. Registering Imperial citizens with Chain Codes was an essential step in the Empire's efforts to monitor its subjects, entering them into a vast database to allow tracking and restriction of their movements.

Under Imperial rule, all newborn children delivered in state-compliant hospitals or registered as citizens after birth were automatically issued Chain Codes. The problem of registering adults had to be handled more creatively. Republic credits were made worthless and unspendable; in order to turn their money into usable Imperial credits, citizens had to register for the new Imperial I.D. system. Checking the Chain Codes of prospective travelers at starports became a routine part of travel between most Imperial systems, making it difficult for fugitives to move freely. Forging or stealing Chain Codes was challenging.

Chain Codes survived the Empire's collapse, seeing continued use in the New Republic and beyond. Even nearly a millennium later, in the 9th and early 10th centuries ABY, they were a common form of ID across multiple galactic governments. When Darth Solipsis seized Coruscant in 902 ABY, however, his regime found that the old system had exploitable holes in it. In order to achieve absolute order and control over the Core Worlds, the architects of the new Galactic Empire sought to improve upon Chain Codes, making it nearly impossible to operate within Imperial space without the use of an officially assigned ID.

The fruit of their efforts was the CRI, a version of Chain Code physically embedded in the left forearm of every Imperial citizen. By making this electro-tattoo serve as everything from passport to bank card, the Imperial administration was able to make it an essential feature of every citizen's daily life. There could be no attempt to use someone else's, and no one could get far in the Empire without one. The CRI became the mark of Imperial citizenship, a convenience but also a brand and a tracking device, ensuring that the actions of every citizen - even as innocuous as a hoverbus ride or caf purchase - were constantly monitored.

Similarly to Chain Codes in Palpatine's Galactic Empire, rollout of the CRI began as a legal and financial requirement - in order to prove citizenship and access funds, Imperial subjects suddenly needed one. Existing hard currency and bank accounts - generally Galactic Alliance credits in the Empire's conquered Core Worlds territories - could be registered and added to official Imperial accounts at designated COMLIT offices and pop-up registration sites. Businesses within the Empire were required to accept only CRI-swipes, meaning anyone who failed to comply with registration would soon be penniless and starving.

Soon, any civilian without a CRI was deemed a potential subversive or outside infiltrator.

 

[MANIAC]

Dark Forces

I missed your subs, as always, amazing!

Approved.