<h1>Democracies must adopt ethical, sustainable policies on digital IDs, biometrics, and AI to protect privacy and equality</h1> A former defence research chief argued at an academic public policy conference that democracies must craft ethical, sustainable policies to balance individual privacy with collective governance, warning against hurried technological adoption. He urged careful use of digital identities and live biometrics in policymaking, highlighted artificial intelligence's tendency to prioritize short-term gains over long-term democratic impacts, and called for policy interventions to address technology-driven unemployment and inequality. A conference organiser noted the forum's role linking research and practice and highlighted its postgraduate programme and competitive paper selection process as evidence of institutional engagement in public policy design and implementation.