Eric Norlin's Weblog: ID Vetting

May 03, 2005

ID Vetting

One of the great "problems" in digital identity is "vetting" -- proving a 1:1 relationship btwn an identity and an actual physical person. Obviously, this is way past pseudonyms, anonymity and the rest -- this is about a high-stakes game of security.....ie, how do i know that you actually are the person that is tied to whatever credential you're asserting? and is that vetting process strong enough?

ID vetting is the great house of cards foundation that we're all building upon. I've often that that if someone could get it right, they'd be gajillionaires. Alternatively, it actually may be a function more suited to a gov't or semi-gov't agency (many have postulated that the Post Office is the ideal agency).

This article -- about congress passing a law that requires 4 types of Identification for a driver's license (photo id [biometric], ssn, birth cert, and bill w/ name/addy on it) -- brings this problem into much greater focus....primarily because what we now staring down is the barrel of a default national id.

Now, in reality, this has been in the works for a while -- in fact, folks like myself and Phil Windley have been blogging about it -- both of us wondering when someone would wake up and realize that congress (with post 9/11 legislation) had just mandated a default national id without anyone noticing! So here we are.....

....having not had any national debate about what a national id means; having not thought through the negatives; having not explored the positives; congress is acting.....

so what to do? i dunno. mind you, i'm not necessarily against this -- i just think that all of us in the digital identity conversation have a responsibility to ensure that the proper thinking and conversation occurs *prior* to all of this stuff coming down the pipe.....

09:42 AM | Permalink

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Listed below are links to weblogs that reference ID Vetting:

» National ID sneaks in from Joho the Blog
Eric Norlin points out that Congress is about to pass a national ID law, although it's in the guise of mandated guidelines for state drivers licenses. The legislation is attached to a big Iraq bill, so it will go through without any discussion. Is it t... [Read More]

» Pacific coasting from recursiveProgress
At DIDW, in San Fran, this week. You can tell who's from the east end of the country by watching the gym at 04:30PDT. Opening night activities were pretty decent. Running into old acquaintances everywhere and being pointed to the ubiquitous blogs. Eric... [Read More]

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May 03, 2005

ID Vetting

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