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Saturday, January 18, 2003
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A slightly aged discussion but still relevant. What continues to puzzle
me is that many view the identity issue as simply a battle between
commercial interests and the individual. I'm thinking that if I want to
have an intimate conversation with someone, I really want to know who
that someone is regardless of whether the conversation is romantic,
medical, gossip, confession, legal advice, or, yes, financial. It's not
just about money and junk mail. All our analog modes of conversation
will find a digital outlet - bringing all the original varieties of
trust issues with them.
A critical element for any Digital Identity system being accepted by
the individual will be their trust in their understanding of how the
system works. Informed consent will be crucial to widespread, long-term
acceptance. That implies an intuitiveness in making choices - a feeling
that I-the-chooser know what the consequences of my choice are and that
I can rely on those being the consequences.
The key flaw in various "digital wallet" plans has been the idea of
someone other than the owner holding that person's wallet. In reality, a person's
wallet is a collection - that they
hold - of credentials with various parties who will vouch for some
relationship with them. A driver license leads to the motor vehicle
agency who indicates whether the person is permitted to drive. A
credit/debit card leads to a financial institution who indicates
whether they will cover this purchase. A health insurance card
indicates who will vouch for various medical expenses being covered
(and how). France has a more advanced card (a smart card) that
indicates coverage as well as primary doctor, pharmacist, prescriptions
and all with, presumably, strong security to limit any party to seeing
only what is appropriate for them to know. A person's wallet may also
have a library card, a voter registration card, social security card,
professional membership card, frequent flyer card, video rental card,
and on and on. Then there are pictures of family (with various ties,
rights and obligations relating to marriage, child care/support,
schools/day-care, child and spouse medical records, etc). There are
divorce papers, loans, mortgages, property titles, product/service
contracts and warranties. All of these may not be in the physical
wallet but, I suspect, they will end up in the digital wallet. The
person will retain possession of these credentials while at the other
end of each will be the real-time verifier of them. Trustworthiness and
intuitiveness will be key to whatever evolves.
8:57:46 AM 
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Much of the conversation seems to be about what is a reasonable "search." Perhaps the distinction might be between collecting everything on everyone -just incase - and having a method to quickly collect everything on someone when there is a reason to. Does pattern searching lead to pattern mutation or to risk reduction or some of each?
Judge
to Hear Air ID Challenge. A federal court agrees to decide a case
that could determine whether airline passengers should be forced to show
an ID before boarding a flight. By Julia Scheeres. [Wired News]
Is
tech eating away at liberties?. Balancing civil liberties with
national security has become a difficult juggling act following
terrorist attacks, says technology consultant Bill Thompson. [BBC
News | Technology | UK Edition]
Government
data mining raises privacy concerns. Several high-tech homeland
security initiatives and recommendations are raising concerns about
whether civil liberties could be undermined. [Computerworld News]
6:09:03 AM
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© Copyright 2006 Russ Savage.
Last update: 5/8/06; 9:03:56 PM.
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