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Obama administration moves forward with unique Internet ID for all Americans

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Re: Obama administration moves forward with unique Internet ID for all Americans

#21
post #3

Is this done anywhere else in the world? It is the scariest of the scary Big Brother measures I've seen recently...

Italian gov has been talking about doing something similar for a long time. It was kindly suggested by SIAE, the italian RIAA.

Re: Obama administration moves forward with unique Internet ID for all Americans

#22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Norway has a unified authentication scheme for government sites, but that's as far as it goes. --If the US wants to do that, fine, but if they think private sites are really going to go for it, they're dreaming. I wouldn't trust the government to handle identification across multiple sites any more than I trust Facebook or Google.

The Facebook will lead the pack. It will also try to establish itself as central authentication authority.

Except that no financial institution will accept a Facebook identity.

Re: Obama administration moves forward with unique Internet ID for all Americans

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Norway has a unified authentication scheme for government sites, but that's as far as it goes. --If the US wants to do that, fine, but if they think private sites are really going to go for it, they're dreaming. I wouldn't trust the government to handle identification across multiple sites any more than I trust Facebook or Google.

Norway has a unified authentication scheme for government sites The UK has a similar system, although surprisingly few people know about it: http://www.gateway.gov.uk/

we also have something like that were in the Netherlands. Work really well actally.

Re: Obama administration moves forward with unique Internet ID for all Americans

#25
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remind me again of why we "need" a solution such as this? All this screeching reminds me of the people wanting a centralized solution to spam in the 1990s via government control or micropayments. We don't hear from them anymore because of spam filters and increased storage and bandwidth. My google account has double authentication now, telephone as well as a second email address, and serves as a central repository fo…

"Remind me again of why we 'need' a solution such as this?" There are lots of services that people want that are impossible to build without a way to prove that someone is who they say they are. E.g. better reputation systems. "we all KNOW it will be abused." Obviously. That doesn't mean there isn't a need though.

The private sector is already doing a much better job of building reputation systems. It's now a full-fledged area of computing work. There's even a sizable O'Reilly book on the topic.

Re: Obama administration moves forward with unique Internet ID for all Americans

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Facebook will lead the pack. It will also try to establish itself as central authentication authority.

Except that no financial institution will accept a Facebook identity.

They will if the government mandates it.

Re: Obama administration moves forward with unique Internet ID for all Americans

#27
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remind me again of why we "need" a solution such as this? All this screeching reminds me of the people wanting a centralized solution to spam in the 1990s via government control or micropayments. We don't hear from them anymore because of spam filters and increased storage and bandwidth. My google account has double authentication now, telephone as well as a second email address, and serves as a central repository fo…

"Remind me again of why we 'need' a solution such as this?" There are lots of services that people want that are impossible to build without a way to prove that someone is who they say they are. E.g. better reputation systems. "we all KNOW it will be abused." Obviously. That doesn't mean there isn't a need though.

Last I checked there is an identity management authentication system you can use, for example Twitter has verified accounts (I don't know how they do it, perhaps by mail) or Bluehost asks for people to fax them a copy of an ID/Passport to get shell access (stupid, considering they have your VISA).

So what you are saying is you are prepared to take the potential abuses because you want it to be more "seamless" than a fax, postcard or a $1 VISA charge. And that further these abuses are better than having a market solution where a commercial ID provider or bank does it themselves?

Sounds like f--- all gain for a lot of risk. And we all know that beyond the abuses the "voluntary" nature of this will swiftly decline after it's implemented, so don't try to argue in that direction either. Just a reminder: the US government is currently illegally sifting through people's email, has wars going which are not authorized by congress, still runs a number of secret prisons across the world in which torture is conducted, is seeking people's private twitter messages in addition to their email because they have contact with Wikileaks, is groping people's genitals with high-school drop-outs in airports as well as taking naked photographs of them and has a "Homeland" tsar who is going to appear on telescreens installed in Walmarts to tell people to be alarmed and suspicous. Further, opposition movements have heated up the rhetoric of your politics to the point where there are open calls for the assassination of Julian Assange (who, like or dislike, is doing journalism) and the domestic rhetoric has been such that mentally ill people are now gunning down politicians. And you think it's advisable we install an ID system on the Internet because, in some unspecified way, it would be easier than a $1 VISA charge or a fax.... You sir, are very shill-like.

Re: Obama administration moves forward with unique Internet ID for all Americans

#28
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remind me again of why we "need" a solution such as this? All this screeching reminds me of the people wanting a centralized solution to spam in the 1990s via government control or micropayments. We don't hear from them anymore because of spam filters and increased storage and bandwidth. My google account has double authentication now, telephone as well as a second email address, and serves as a central repository fo…

"Remind me again of why we 'need' a solution such as this?" There are lots of services that people want that are impossible to build without a way to prove that someone is who they say they are. E.g. better reputation systems. "we all KNOW it will be abused." Obviously. That doesn't mean there isn't a need though.

A better REPUTATION system (??!!??!!) is the best you could come up with? I cannot think of a less important application of a national ID card.

And even in this area, Amazon/Newegg have solved the pretty nicely with the "verified purchaser" tag. How is the national ID card system better?

For Serious Stuff (TM) like opening a stock trading account, laws have already been passed to make an all-electronic signup as binding as a paper signature.

We criticize China when it does something like this, but when America does it's all fine.

Re: Obama administration moves forward with unique Internet ID for all Americans

#29
This is a waste of time. Any good intelligence organization can already gain most or all or probably too much of the information they need from online actions, transactions, networks, posts/comments, protocol sniffing, ISP/ad network data, re-routing/copying traffic, social hacking, infected pcs, etc. And if you are encrypting, proxying, spoofing then you are Anonymous and already on the radar.

This Internet ID would just be a show piece.

Re: Obama administration moves forward with unique Internet ID for all Americans

#30
post #3

Is this done anywhere else in the world? It is the scariest of the scary Big Brother measures I've seen recently...

Yes, Denmark:

https://www.nemid.nu/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NemID

Most public institutions as well as many private (including the banks) have switched to this system.

Our government already know just about everything about us (e.g. few people need to fill out tax forms), so this has not been very controversial. The largest controversy has been with the security.

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