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I don't really care how I'm identified, provided I know it's me. But the security problems are real and very annoying, even with a "normal" name. For some sill
by cameronh90 3y ago
I don't really care how I'm identified, provided I know it's me.
But the security problems are real and very annoying, even with a "normal" name. For some silly historical reason, my middle name has two different spellings depending on which official document you're looking at, which causes no end of problems. Conversely, I know people with very simple, common names, the kind where two people born in the same city on the same day have the same name, that suffer a load of different but equally frustrating issues.
These problems, however, aren't just limited to computer systems [0]. Border officers, bank clerks and government officials and other general bureaucrat types are all just as bad as a strict strcmp implementation.
The issue is that many people operating in an official capacity seem to work under the assumption that a name is a globally unique identifier that has exactly one representation, but that's not how names work in any culture.
On the other hand, if not names, then what? Combined with birth dates, it's the closest thing we have to a globally recognised unique immutable identifier, and any better alternative is going to feel invasive and face a lot of opposition on privacy grounds.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq-dchJPXGA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq-dchJPXGA
- sokoloff 3y agoNames are mutable though.
- cameronh90 3y agoThey're also not globally unique and don't have a single representation. But they're the closest thing we have that would be acceptable to most people. Better suggestion?
- bandrami 3y agoGUID assigned at birth and implanted in an RFID chip behind the ear.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- CelestialTeapot 3y agoLike normal...
- anticensor 3y agoWe need a World Citizen's Number from the United Nations.
- GoblinSlayer 3y agoPassport number, phone number, tax account number.
- aleph_minus_one 3y agoThis depends a lot on the country. In Germany, it is intended to be hard to change your name; in the USA, the situation is different. Also in Germany, if you change your name voluntarily (without having a very good reason (CLARIFICATION: of course marriage is a good reason)), this is considered to be a strong sign that you deeply hate your parents (and did the name change because of that). Indeed, the people who I know who changed their first name to their middle name exactly did it because if this.
- kasey_junk 3y agoDo women generally not take their husbands name when they marry?
- aleph_minus_one 3y agoI rather had forenames in the back of my mind when I wrote my post. But indeed, because it is hard to change your name in Germany, I know quite some women who used marriage to get rid of a surname that they did not like, because there is hardly any other socially accepted way to get rid of it.
- roelschroeven 3y agoHere in Flanders some do, most don't. Why would they? They are as much a person as their husband, with an identity and family that is not any less valid than their husband's.
- kasey_junk 3y agoMy point isn’t that they should (my wife didn’t) only that it’s very common for them to do this so thinking of names as mostly immutable is incorrect even where other forms of name changes are rare. This is in fact one of the iconic places where lack of diversity in software teams cause problems. Men may have a blind spot around name changes that women don’t, because of their lived experience.
- konha 3y ago
- braiamp 3y agoHow the state identifies you, is one of those things that require a single source of truth. Civil registry is usually considered the source of truth, as in that everyone that doesn't agree has to agree with it.
- cameronh90 3y agoMy birth registration is handwritten in difficult to read calligraphy, with no unique numbers, and hasn't been digitised. It may be the source of truth, but it's not a very good one.
- klausa 3y agoThis is very much not true. Ask anyone with western name who moved to Japan (or a myriad of other countries, but I am in process of doing the same right now so it hits close to home) whether the state has a single source of truth for their name.
- Someone 3y ago> Civil registry is usually considered the source of truth The USA doesn’t really have a civil registry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_registration#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_registration#United_Stat...: “In the United States, vital records such as birth certificates, death certificates, and frequently marriage certificates are maintained by the Office of Vital Statistics or Office of Vital Records in each individual state. Other documents such as deeds, mortgage documents, name change documents, and divorce records, as well as marriage certificates for those states not centralizing these records, are maintained by the clerk of court of each individual county. However, the term 'civil registry' is not used.” I think that means your marriage may be documented in county C1, your subsequent divorce in county C2, and your name change in county C3, none of which need be in your state of birth.