Hello all.
I think the reason I am writing this message is to give my take on what
identity is, and how such a concept might be represented by technology. The
idea that I have held for more than 5.5 years revolves around the notion of
individuals who assert claims over a collection of devices as to identity,
and with which other individuals one may be interacting.
Now, before I tell you my beliefs in regard to identity, in regard to the
teleconference I joined several hours ago, the subject of the differences
between identity and privacy were raised. Indeed, I believe one's privacy is
an important issue, but intuitively to me at least, privacy definitely
should be considered only as a component of one's identity.
Identity to me is not something that can be escrowed by any organisation,
and trusted by individuals as being the sine qua non to every individual. I
back away from such attempts to produce a universal identifier. An
individual may indeed choose not to be identified by a "universal
identifier", and indeed, the fact that an individual might choose this could
in fact be, a claim that could be used to distinguish individuals.
Hence, identity cannot be captured by the use of any individual claim; a set
of claims might be better. A system, or perhaps more accurately, a
conceptual framework which yet may lend itself to some degree of
systematisation that captures a set of arbitrary claims representing
behavioural modes might work for asserting individual identity.
Governments may provide an identifier for those citizens who choose to
interact with their government. This identifier may be taken as a claim by
any other individuals, citizen or alien, as to the identity of the
individual with whom one is interacting. Personally, I would only accept a
"citizenship identification" indicates a degree to which I was interacting
with another one or more individuals over some medium.
So, summarily, I think individuals are identified by their behaviour, and
one's behaviour might be ascribable to a collection of claims and assertions
concerning the ownership and use by one individual to a collection of
identifiers, devices, physical and conceptual territory. A wise government
might also realise this; while they may provide an identifier to categorise
and audit service requests within its systems, they should not automatically
assume that one particular individual's activity can be ascribed to what
activity logs might say in regard to one particular identifier.
Hence, a system that might be able to aggregate variable claims together may
provide a practical way for anyone to assert their own individual set of
claims to others. Of course, a system as I envisage should be capable of 1:
allowing individuals who choose to use it to interact unimpeded with
individuals who do not and 2: accepting that individuals may choose to
identify themselves with some persona in some modes, with another persona in
other modes, and may choose not to interact with this system at all (hence
to remain anonymous) in yet other modes.
Although I had joined the earlier NSTIC teleconference, I was not sure that
my contribution was going to be appropriate, and hence, I didn't speak up.
However, the teleconference was informative, and I endeavour to be present
and possibly contribute in the future.
I hope most other individuals find these claims and assertions of mine
valuably indicative of my beliefs and behaviour.
Owen.
On 13 January 2011 08:37, Charles Andres
My point was the road to public acceptance of any Govt-approved identity plan/policy will be steep. Plans to create positive momentum requires dealing with this reality.
Re: your question: Specific policies regulating commerce/ownership of dangerous substances/activities is context dependent. Can we first agree on what the colored lights mean, and what side of the road we all should drive on? (Right on Red except sometimes in Boston ;-).
On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 12:13 PM, Tony Rutkowski
wrote: On 1/12/2011 11:29 AM, Charles Andres wrote:
However, John Poindexter, the NSA, the CIA, the Patriot Act, RealID, etc. (to name a few) have "poisoned the well" of trust with previous attempts to build centralized digital information systems to allow the government to know more about citizens than citizens know about the government.
The dialogue seems to have answered the question posed - the propensity to vilify public officials and institutions with different views on this subject as apostates has not changed. Perhaps no surprise.
Would you oppose identity checks or tracking of those who purchase extended clips for Glocks or does this also abridge perceived rights?
--tony
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-- Clique Space(TM). Practical, Ubiquitous, and Individual Security and Identity in Cyberspace. Research paper on Clique Space: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1714848 Owen's Garden of Thought: http://owenpaulthomas.blogspot.com/ Clique Space(TM) Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=81335296379 www.cliquespace.net Skype: owen.paul.thomas Phone: +61 401 493 433