James Governor's Monkchips

Do you want invasion of privacy with your pepperoni?

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Strong rhetoric here from the American Civil Liberties Union.

It is clear that the scenario laid out in this little movie is just around the corner, if not here already. Its a question of degree perhaps, but the information asymettry between what we know about the corporations we do business with, and what they know about us, continues to grow apace. Is there a correlation between wealth concentration and information concentration? There surely is – just ask Google.

In a service oriented architecture the only information available to the application should be that needed to carry out the transaction.

Declarative living (a monkchips neologism), where the user or organisation publishes information about themselves, and or metadata about their preferences, is one thing. One opts into the attention trust. But the linking of databases far and beyond their original purposes can have dangerous consequences; on which note – go view the video.

Perhaps most worrying in the UK is that the government is determined to press ahead with a database that would provide some 90% of the data used in the application in the movie. And if the ID registry is to be accessed for “some” private sector authentication and financial transaction authorisation, according to the current plan, what is the cut-off point?

If I buy a house, the information is aggregated. If i buy… a car? What about if I buy a stereo? Or maybe just a pizza. Of course eating cheese, meat and dough has implications for your healthcare provision…

Some importantant thinking going on with respect to management of ID is coming out of Microsoft right now. Kim Cameron is leading the debate with these laws of identity. We should support him, because one way or another Microsoft is going to be a major player in digital identity. With our support Kim can ensure that the firm is on the side of the angels.

If you’re going to not be evil you have to have a policy discussion. Another important organization here is the Liberty Alliance: it can’t get involved in political lobbying for obvious reasons, but a call for federated, rather than centralised identity management systems, which Liberty supports, has implications for economic and political side effects.  

So lets give our support to Kim, Liberty and the ACLU.

My own favourite scary ID moment came when I was at JavaOne earlier this year. I logged onto a major airline to check my departure time. No strong authentication. Guess what popped up unbidden- my passport number. So we make it harder for terrorists to get on planes by making it easier for a cracker to get hold of our passport number… I am pretty sure Bruce Schneier would have something to say about that. The problem with wholesale surveillance, in my mind, is that it can lead to information bulimia.

[disclaimer: Microsoft and the Liberty Alliance are both RedMonk clients.]

 

 

 

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