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> flimsy assumptions and without any real backup saying this does not make it true -- volumes of political science are written on the topic of public identity

> flimsy assumptions and without any real backup saying this does not make it true -- volumes of political science are written on the topic of public identity. The perfect world where every instrument is applied fairly and in no other way, does not exist. A quick knowledge of modern investigation systems by law and tax authorities will be evidence of the alternate uses of this tech. Details on these topics could easily fill a book.

mariusor 3y ago
I don't have the knowledge of those volumes of political science and modern investigation systems where electronic identity can be applied to greater negative effect. That's why I was asking for more concrete examples instead of hand waving.
- pookha 3y ago
  Really? Seems self evident to me...The entire point of binding an employee or user to a certificate, PIN and an x509 PKI system has always been for authorization and tracking. No hand waiving required. For instance, Militaries around the world use these cards to grant access to internal systems and to track and monitor the activities of the insiders within these sensitive systems. Seeing this creeping into the general public is creeptastic.
  - mariusor 3y ago
    I agree that the capability might be present, but you forget how strong a stance the EU countries have for PII. A government that would abuse an identity mechanism would immediately be public knowledge and receive universal opprobrium inside the union and most likely outside of it too.
lxgr 3y ago
The parent comment is does not talk about the political desirability of public identity, but rather makes (largely baseless as far as I can tell, unlike the article) claims about the technical security of one particular scheme. > The perfect world where every instrument is applied fairly and in no other way, does not exist. True – yet the absence of a government-provided system often means that inferior means of identity verification will have to be used by people and businesses. (Have you ever opened a bank account or credit card in the US?) That's why we get absurd private initiatives like Worldcoin that seem every bit as dystopian as some of the more poorly implemented government-based ID schemes.

mariusor 3y ago

I don't have the knowledge of those volumes of political science and modern investigation systems where electronic identity can be applied to greater negative effect. That's why I was asking for more concrete examples instead of hand waving.

pookha 3y ago
Really? Seems self evident to me...The entire point of binding an employee or user to a certificate, PIN and an x509 PKI system has always been for authorization and tracking. No hand waiving required. For instance, Militaries around the world use these cards to grant access to internal systems and to track and monitor the activities of the insiders within these sensitive systems. Seeing this creeping into the general public is creeptastic.
- mariusor 3y ago
  I agree that the capability might be present, but you forget how strong a stance the EU countries have for PII. A government that would abuse an identity mechanism would immediately be public knowledge and receive universal opprobrium inside the union and most likely outside of it too.

lxgr 3y ago

The parent comment is does not talk about the political desirability of public identity, but rather makes (largely baseless as far as I can tell, unlike the article) claims about the technical security of one particular scheme. > The perfect world where every instrument is applied fairly and in no other way, does not exist. True – yet the absence of a government-provided system often means that inferior means of identity verification will have to be used by people and businesses. (Have you ever opened a bank account or credit card in the US?) That's why we get absurd private initiatives like Worldcoin that seem every bit as dystopian as some of the more poorly implemented government-based ID schemes.