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Wrong approach. Person's identity and authentication should not be based on the immutable and public information like social security number, driver's license n

by lr1970 3y ago

Wrong approach. Person's identity and authentication should not be based on the immutable and public information like social security number, driver's license number, address history, etc. There are many ways such information can leak and when it does its stays there forever. We need a proper digital ID, certification and conflict resolution mechanisms. It would not be cheap but the alternatives are costlier in the long run.

everdrive 3y ago
I don’t disagree, but if we build a digital ID the free internet will finally be permanently dead.
- Ylpertnodi 3y ago
  As I have taught my children: there are so many cameras around you are always being watched, or can be traced through cameras. As for the "free internet", I told my kids it's already fucking dead.
  - mrguyorama 3y ago
    The free internet died the second that Google bought doubleclick.
- mptest 3y ago
  Don't zero knowledge maths give us a mechanism in theory to theoretically guarantee privacy and verity? In practice, I agree with your conclusion as the likely course of action.
  - xp84 3y ago
    100% possible technically, and some countries may have/may already have had success in this area. Sadly, at least according to our popular narrative, America was founded on the principle of extreme distrust of the government. Combine that with mass ignorance and a technological solution to these issues becomes impossible politically. We only even have SSL because no governments needed to be convinced to approve of it, and the list of operating system and browser vendors is so short that it became possible to essentially self-organize a set of generally-trusted root certificates.
    - mptest 3y ago
      Agree re struggling with implementation.. Zero knowledge stuff seems impossible on the surface so explaining it to political folks is extremely difficult as I have first hand experience with. "Guaranteeing I've paid my taxes without revealing anything else about my finances" tends to get them to listen up long enough for me to explain it to them most of the time though. Re govt distrust, not uniformly. As my older leftist friends remind me they grew up in a time were they thought anything was possible for their government to do, with enough protest they could get the civil rights act, the voting act, the infrastructure spending , etc with all their dreams on the horizon. Then a few people got a little too loud about ending poverty and other more ""radical"" progressive stuff and got killed for it. But it is possible, we've just been beat down for 50 years by neoliberal austerity politics. Very interesting stuff re SSL. Any book recommendations you might have on the history of stuff like that? How security standards manifested and became adopted? from https to aes to pgp I vaguely know about all these things but would love to read more. I thoroughly enjoyed chip wars and master switch and stuff in that vein.
      - xp84 3y ago
        I appreciate the perspective you've shared about the longer-term history. That's good to keep in mind when I start feeling too cynical/hopeless. As for books, I wish I did have a recommendation but haven't read anything matching that description.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
- heikkilevanto 3y ago
  Not sure. Here in Denmark we have a digital id called "MitId" (my id). It is used for all kinds of official stuff, from looking at your prescriptions to signing real estate deals. But not for posting comments on random websites etc.
  - Horffupolde 3y ago
    [flagged]
  - all2 3y ago
    We have something similar in the US, actually. It's a Federal standard that states have been asked (told) to adhere to called REAL ID [0]. Hysterically, it was conceived by and pushed by the Ministry of Peace. [0] https://www.dhs.gov/real-id https://www.dhs.gov/real-id
    - piperswe 3y ago
      There's just about zero similarity between MitID and REAL ID. It's more similar to login.gov, but still not super close.
tim333 3y ago
In practice for recent bank and brokerage account opening they seem to have moved to take a pic of your passport and then take a selfie or vid of you holding said passport. Bit of a pain but quite hard to hack. Of course it doesn't work if you don't have a passport or comparable ID.
Aurornis 3y ago
Identity thieves would love a system that let them completely take over someone’s identity in event of a compromise. Can you imagine trying to get a loan and discovering that your identity has been cancelled and someone else has take it over now?

by lr1970 3y ago

everdrive 3y ago

I don’t disagree, but if we build a digital ID the free internet will finally be permanently dead.

Ylpertnodi 3y ago
As I have taught my children: there are so many cameras around you are always being watched, or can be traced through cameras. As for the "free internet", I told my kids it's already fucking dead.
- mrguyorama 3y ago
  The free internet died the second that Google bought doubleclick.
mptest 3y ago
Don't zero knowledge maths give us a mechanism in theory to theoretically guarantee privacy and verity? In practice, I agree with your conclusion as the likely course of action.
- xp84 3y ago
  100% possible technically, and some countries may have/may already have had success in this area. Sadly, at least according to our popular narrative, America was founded on the principle of extreme distrust of the government. Combine that with mass ignorance and a technological solution to these issues becomes impossible politically. We only even have SSL because no governments needed to be convinced to approve of it, and the list of operating system and browser vendors is so short that it became possible to essentially self-organize a set of generally-trusted root certificates.
  - mptest 3y ago
    Agree re struggling with implementation.. Zero knowledge stuff seems impossible on the surface so explaining it to political folks is extremely difficult as I have first hand experience with. "Guaranteeing I've paid my taxes without revealing anything else about my finances" tends to get them to listen up long enough for me to explain it to them most of the time though. Re govt distrust, not uniformly. As my older leftist friends remind me they grew up in a time were they thought anything was possible for their government to do, with enough protest they could get the civil rights act, the voting act, the infrastructure spending , etc with all their dreams on the horizon. Then a few people got a little too loud about ending poverty and other more ""radical"" progressive stuff and got killed for it. But it is possible, we've just been beat down for 50 years by neoliberal austerity politics. Very interesting stuff re SSL. Any book recommendations you might have on the history of stuff like that? How security standards manifested and became adopted? from https to aes to pgp I vaguely know about all these things but would love to read more. I thoroughly enjoyed chip wars and master switch and stuff in that vein.
    - xp84 3y ago
      I appreciate the perspective you've shared about the longer-term history. That's good to keep in mind when I start feeling too cynical/hopeless. As for books, I wish I did have a recommendation but haven't read anything matching that description.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
heikkilevanto 3y ago
Not sure. Here in Denmark we have a digital id called "MitId" (my id). It is used for all kinds of official stuff, from looking at your prescriptions to signing real estate deals. But not for posting comments on random websites etc.
- Horffupolde 3y ago
  [flagged]
- all2 3y ago
  We have something similar in the US, actually. It's a Federal standard that states have been asked (told) to adhere to called REAL ID [0]. Hysterically, it was conceived by and pushed by the Ministry of Peace. [0] https://www.dhs.gov/real-id https://www.dhs.gov/real-id
  - piperswe 3y ago
    There's just about zero similarity between MitID and REAL ID. It's more similar to login.gov, but still not super close.

tim333 3y ago

In practice for recent bank and brokerage account opening they seem to have moved to take a pic of your passport and then take a selfie or vid of you holding said passport. Bit of a pain but quite hard to hack. Of course it doesn't work if you don't have a passport or comparable ID.

Aurornis 3y ago

Identity thieves would love a system that let them completely take over someone’s identity in event of a compromise. Can you imagine trying to get a loan and discovering that your identity has been cancelled and someone else has take it over now?