Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Obama administration moves forward with unique Internet ID for all Americans

engadget.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 199 posts

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

#51

Post by lwhi »

Alex3917 wrote: post #10
flyt wrote: post #2

The silver lining is that by the time this project goes through study after study, development, testing, and finally deployment 5-10 years will have passed and the Internet will fundamentally change in ways that either makes this instantly irrelevant or impossible to enforce.

We need a publicly-controlled identity infrastructure that's compatible with the Internet. The problem isn't that internet ID is somehow evil, but rather the government.

The government isn't the problem; the concept of top down control is the problem.

No one group of people should ever be allowed this much power.

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

#53

Post by rdtsc »

sliverstorm wrote: post #40
bigsassy wrote: post #5

This article is pretty light on details. Here's a quote from the White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt: Schmidt stressed today that anonymity and pseudonymity will remain possible on the Internet. "I don't have to get a credential, if I don't want to," he said. There's no chance that "a centralized database will emerge," and "we need the private sector to lead the implementation of this," he said. Read…

I don't have to get (one) Cool. They've got the OK from me. It could turn out to be neat, and so long as it's optional I'm not worried.

Are you being sarcastic or serious?

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

#56

Post by j_baker »

drats wrote: post #18
Alex3917 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need a publicly-controlled identity infrastructure that's compatible with the Internet. The problem isn't that internet ID is somehow evil, but rather the government.

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…

This could be useful for allowing various levels of government to provide more services online. For instance, I wouldn't have to provide my social security number to a third party if I wanted to pay my taxes online. Or better yet, maybe they could allow voting online like Estonia does. Imagine what that would do for voter turnout.

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

#57

Post by j_baker »

tommi wrote: post #4
StavrosK wrote: post #3

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

The Estonian ID card is somewhat similar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonian_ID_card

Estonia is notable because their government does practically everything online.

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

#58

Post by motters »

bigsassy wrote: post #5

This article is pretty light on details. Here's a quote from the White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt: Schmidt stressed today that anonymity and pseudonymity will remain possible on the Internet. "I don't have to get a credential, if I don't want to," he said. There's no chance that "a centralized database will emerge," and "we need the private sector to lead the implementation of this," he said. Read…

They said something similar to this about the proposed UK national ID system, then shortly afterwards unveiled plans for an incredibly centralised system with a slow transition leading from voluntary to mandatory. Fortunately these plans were recently scrapped.

I think the big picture here is that various governments for a variety of reasons foresee difficult times ahead and are trying, falteringly and often swimming against public opinion, to move towards a state of affairs where they have a greater degree of authoritarian control than was the case in the past - perhaps similar to China, which may become the new model state/economy which others seek to emulate.

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

#59

Post by j_baker »

motters wrote: post #52

If it waddles like a national ID system and quacks like a national ID system, then it's probably a national ID system. Here in the UK we are fortunate to have recently dumped plans for a national ID system. Americans should do the same.

Just out of curiosity, if the national government in the UK doesn't issue IDs, who does? Counties? Cities?

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

#60

Post by watmough »

And you can absolutely bet that this will be tied to a SSN and will be necessary in order to interact with the government.

In some ways, this is reminiscent of Microsoft's attempt to 'reboot the internet' with their own security code. I believe it was called Hailstorm.

Post reply on HN