Re: "The ID Divide"

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: Adam L Beberg [beberg () stanford edu]
Sent: Sunday, June 08, 2008 7:07 PM
To: David Farber
Subject: Re: [IP] "The ID Divide"

Hi Dave and IP,

I do love these identification debates. Having worked with biometrics
extensively, I can say that we can easily identify each of the 6.8
billion humans on the planet and say they are the same person the 2nd
time your organization meets them with 15 minutes training, and WITHOUT
needing computer/scanner/electricity to do it. That's important when the
network is down. The first time you meet a stranger you need the network
of course. So this is not a technology problem, not an identification
problem.

Fraud and people being able to keep data encrypted and not stolen is
just normal human incompetence, and doesn't have anything specific to do
with the ID issue. Stanford just had a huge data breach, yet another
story of a stolen laptop with data on it.

Our whole economy now runs on credit cards, which have ZERO security,
authentication, or identification involved. They just make up for the
fraud with fees. So ID is not actually part of the model, crazy but true!

But the best example of this is airports. We (society) care that you
don't have a bomb, that's all. The airlines care that you didn't buy a
ticket long ago and resell it to a business traveler that realized they
needed it 12 hours ago. You can't fly without an ID, period, but a high
percentage of fake bombs get through just fine. ID required, bomb optional.

And this is not a poverty issue, spread over the life of an ID, they are
a few dollars a year, and governments could easily make them cheaper if
that was actually an issue.

So you're left with 2 groups that on rare occasion need ID but don't
have it:

1. Citizens that don't want to be tracked, more all the time. READ ID
scares everyone, and for good reason. Some people just don't want to be
on the grid. The nuns are a red herring but make a great story. Worry
more about the millions of voters that were knocked off voting rolls by
the neocons and _did_ have ID. Worry more about the government via
Google putting your medical, purchasing, cellphone location, email/IM
and other records all in one place. They are close to that even without
REAL ID. None that terrorists use none of those things, so aren't
traceable anyway.

2. Illegals (or whatever the PC term is now) that shouldn't have
government ID in the first place. Coincidence how the reports 20 million
estimate isn't that much more then the 12-15M estimate for illegals?
There are now so many of them that it's interfering with the economy
here in California that they cannot open bank accounts and drive since
they do just about everything and you have to find a way to pay them.

So it IS a big brother issue, and it IS a social issue. Business wants
strong ID to handle large $ transactions, but people don't want the
government, business, or anyone else knowing what they are doing.

Another unresolvable paradox.

--
- Adam L. Beberg




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