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I treat my face, name, birthday and numbers as open data. Maybe companies should stop using these things for verification and start allowing people to use cryp

I treat my face, name, birthday and numbers as open data. Maybe companies should stop using these things for verification and start allowing people to use cryptography more efficiently.

randerson 6y ago
I can just imagine the future: Instead of reading stories of Identity Theft, we'll read about people getting locked out of their identity .. like the folks today who lose their Bitcoin keys.
- rudyfink 6y ago
  "Of course, you can always pay a recovery company to get your identity back. But, that's expensive--more than most people have. The company will do it on credit (if they like your prospects), but then they have title to your identity until you pay them back, which, for many, is a day that never comes. The charges, service fees, garnishments, and interest on the above just add up and up."
  - r00fus 6y ago
    Where is this from?
  - airstrike 6y ago
    It makes for an effective gloomy sci-fi atmosphere, but does it really make sense? What's stopping someone from starting a better recovery company that actually gets the job done and doesn't do it on credit but for a fee? Incentives are not aligned if I have to pay interest because then the company has no reason to actually recover the identity
nkrisc 6y ago
That won't happen until companies are held liable for damages caused by inadequate authentication processes. If a bank gives a credit card to someone who says they're me, based on only on my SSN, I don't see why that should be my problem. It's between the bank and whomever they gave the card to. If they don't know who they actually gave it, well then it sounds like they need to improve their process. But it becomes my problem because it's my credit score that gets ruined.
- lotsofpulp 6y ago
  Everyone has cameras. How a photo of yourself with thumbs up isn’t required is beyond me. It’s extremely easy, and would cut down on a lot of fraud.
  - Pxtl 6y ago
    Which would mean you're constantly sending a photo of yourself with your thumbs up to people, and it becomes trivial to fake. I guess it could be "we need a selfie video of you reading this 6 digit number aloud".
    - xiphias2 6y ago
      Video verification is completely normal at this point
      - fastball 6y ago
        Deepfakes.
        xiphias2 6y ago
        Deepfakes are not yet that good for live video, but you are right, using an open authentication standard that can be transferred between devices would be the only good solution at this point. Companies and governments could verify me live to authenticate my public keys.
    - userbinator 6y ago
      ...and with a shoe on your head.
Shivetya 6y ago
Companies? How about your government? I have a coworker who had returns filed against them by someone in prison! If that does not startle people how about that in some states absentee votes are merely verified against a signature on file. What we need is a means that others can be sure it really is us and we can sure that actions we have taken are credited to us and those we did not are not. In effect we will need a system by which we have instant notification; similar to how some CC providers mail or text you each transaction; and historical tracking so that we can prove when we did or did not. However there are not many unique methods to physically identify people short of dna transfer. I know that people bring up Minority Report whenever facial recognition comes up but that wasn't the tech they used, they used iris recognition. So we break down each action and assign a value to how secure and verified it must be and work our way up from there. Similar to how self driving cars are defined, on a level of one to five how secure must an action be before its accepted
- xiphias2 6y ago
  I don’t see much difference between companies and governments, that’s why having an authentication standard that is accepted by all of them (and users as well) is important.
reaperducer 6y ago
I treat my face, name, birthday and numbers as open data. So because you don't value privacy and choose not to control you personal data, nobody else deserves privacy or to control their personal data?
- dudeman13 6y ago
  I don't think he meant it as nobody deserves privacy and to control their personal data. I took it as a "it's there anyway and there's no point for me to pretend that it is not".
  - xiphias2 6y ago
    Exactly
- danilocesar 6y ago
  He will change his mind when he realize that the information his bank uses to verify his identify is part of his open data now...
  - xiphias2 6y ago
    I keep most of my wealth in places where physical verification is needed. Good luck stealing all the money on my bank accounts, I don’t really care.
- xiphias2 6y ago
  No, I didn’t say that. It’s not about deserving....people don’t have privacy, it’s better to adapt to it. There are lots of things in our lives that we don’t deserve but we have to deal with. I keep some data extremely securely, just not the data that I think will get out anyways.
- closeparen 6y ago
  I don’t believe that the phone book was an immoral institution, no. Or the county register of deeds, or the vital statistics office, or the school directory, or the voter registration rolls, or the court records. Privacy is important, there are things that must be kept confidential, but the basic facts of a person’s existence are not necessarily among them.

I treat my face, name, birthday and numbers as open data. Maybe companies should stop using these things for verification and start allowing people to use cryptography more efficiently.

randerson 6y ago

I can just imagine the future: Instead of reading stories of Identity Theft, we'll read about people getting locked out of their identity .. like the folks today who lose their Bitcoin keys.

rudyfink 6y ago
"Of course, you can always pay a recovery company to get your identity back. But, that's expensive--more than most people have. The company will do it on credit (if they like your prospects), but then they have title to your identity until you pay them back, which, for many, is a day that never comes. The charges, service fees, garnishments, and interest on the above just add up and up."
- r00fus 6y ago
  Where is this from?
- airstrike 6y ago
  It makes for an effective gloomy sci-fi atmosphere, but does it really make sense? What's stopping someone from starting a better recovery company that actually gets the job done and doesn't do it on credit but for a fee? Incentives are not aligned if I have to pay interest because then the company has no reason to actually recover the identity

nkrisc 6y ago

That won't happen until companies are held liable for damages caused by inadequate authentication processes. If a bank gives a credit card to someone who says they're me, based on only on my SSN, I don't see why that should be my problem. It's between the bank and whomever they gave the card to. If they don't know who they actually gave it, well then it sounds like they need to improve their process. But it becomes my problem because it's my credit score that gets ruined.

lotsofpulp 6y ago
Everyone has cameras. How a photo of yourself with thumbs up isn’t required is beyond me. It’s extremely easy, and would cut down on a lot of fraud.
- Pxtl 6y ago
  Which would mean you're constantly sending a photo of yourself with your thumbs up to people, and it becomes trivial to fake. I guess it could be "we need a selfie video of you reading this 6 digit number aloud".
  - xiphias2 6y ago
    Video verification is completely normal at this point
    - fastball 6y ago
      Deepfakes.
      - xiphias2 6y ago
        Deepfakes are not yet that good for live video, but you are right, using an open authentication standard that can be transferred between devices would be the only good solution at this point. Companies and governments could verify me live to authenticate my public keys.
  - userbinator 6y ago
    ...and with a shoe on your head.

Shivetya 6y ago

Companies? How about your government? I have a coworker who had returns filed against them by someone in prison! If that does not startle people how about that in some states absentee votes are merely verified against a signature on file. What we need is a means that others can be sure it really is us and we can sure that actions we have taken are credited to us and those we did not are not. In effect we will need a system by which we have instant notification; similar to how some CC providers mail or text you each transaction; and historical tracking so that we can prove when we did or did not. However there are not many unique methods to physically identify people short of dna transfer. I know that people bring up Minority Report whenever facial recognition comes up but that wasn't the tech they used, they used iris recognition. So we break down each action and assign a value to how secure and verified it must be and work our way up from there. Similar to how self driving cars are defined, on a level of one to five how secure must an action be before its accepted

xiphias2 6y ago
I don’t see much difference between companies and governments, that’s why having an authentication standard that is accepted by all of them (and users as well) is important.

reaperducer 6y ago

I treat my face, name, birthday and numbers as open data. So because you don't value privacy and choose not to control you personal data, nobody else deserves privacy or to control their personal data?

dudeman13 6y ago
I don't think he meant it as nobody deserves privacy and to control their personal data. I took it as a "it's there anyway and there's no point for me to pretend that it is not".
- xiphias2 6y ago
  Exactly
danilocesar 6y ago
He will change his mind when he realize that the information his bank uses to verify his identify is part of his open data now...
- xiphias2 6y ago
  I keep most of my wealth in places where physical verification is needed. Good luck stealing all the money on my bank accounts, I don’t really care.
xiphias2 6y ago
No, I didn’t say that. It’s not about deserving....people don’t have privacy, it’s better to adapt to it. There are lots of things in our lives that we don’t deserve but we have to deal with. I keep some data extremely securely, just not the data that I think will get out anyways.
closeparen 6y ago
I don’t believe that the phone book was an immoral institution, no. Or the county register of deeds, or the vital statistics office, or the school directory, or the voter registration rolls, or the court records. Privacy is important, there are things that must be kept confidential, but the basic facts of a person’s existence are not necessarily among them.