Comment by Nursie

> it's the government having to provide some privacy-protecting means of using them

Nope, not necessarily.

> I have yet to see a single one implemented in real life.

There are likely to be a lot more coming as the newer standards in this area were finalised last year. Online identity is a continually evolving space.

> Moreover, private entities have the perverse incentive to do the opposite of implementing it securely, because they find it profitable to track people

Some do in some circumstances, but far from all. Others (often financial institutions) have wised up to PII being a liability rather than an opportunity and some are working on frameworks and capabilites in this space that don't involve any more storage or transfer of anyone's ID than already happens in banks.